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Pasta maker

Fresh Fettuccine

Egg dough, rolled thin, cut into ribbons. The pasta maker is how you get even sheets without a rolling-pin fight.

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Nests of fresh egg fettuccine on a floured walnut board.

Fresh pasta sounds like a project until you do it once. It's flour, eggs, a little salt, and a rest. The pasta maker is there so the sheets come out even — not because you can't use a rolling pin, but because you'll enjoy dinner more if you don't.

The dough should feel like firm clay, not sticky bread dough. After it rests, you send it through the widest setting a few times, then click thinner, then cut. The noodles cook in about two minutes.

Sauce it in the pan, not in a colander. A little pasta water, a little butter or whatever you're making, and the ribbons get glossy instead of clumpy.

Why you'll love this

  • Only 3 ingredients in the dough
  • The pasta maker keeps every sheet the same thickness
  • Cooks in 2 minutes
  • A great Sunday project with people in the kitchen

Pasta maker with fettuccine cutter

Fresh Fettuccine

Egg dough, rolled thin, cut into ribbons. The pasta maker is how you get even sheets without a rolling-pin fight.

Prep
40 minutes
Total
1 hour 30 minutes
Yield
4 servings

Ingredients

  • 2¼ cups (300g) 00 flour or unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
  • 3 large eggs (about 165g)
  • ½ tsp (2g) fine sea salt
  • Semolina or extra flour, for the cut pasta

Instructions

  1. 1

    Pile the flour on the counter (or in a wide bowl) and make a well. Add the eggs and salt. Beat the eggs with a fork, drawing in flour until you have a shaggy dough. Knead until smooth, 6 to 8 minutes. A stand mixer dough hook on low for 4 minutes works too — then knead by hand for a minute so you can feel it.

  2. 2

    Wrap the dough and rest 30 minutes at room temperature so the gluten relaxes. It should feel like firm clay, not sticky bread dough.

  3. 3

    Clamp the pasta maker to the counter. Divide the dough into four pieces and keep the rest covered. Flatten one piece and dust it lightly.

  4. 4

    Set the pasta maker to the widest setting. Feed the dough through. Fold it in thirds, then send it through the widest setting again, two or three times, until the sheet looks rectangular and calm.

  5. 5

    Click the rollers one notch thinner at a time. Keep going until you can see your hand through the sheet — usually setting 6 of 7. If it sticks, dust with flour. If it tears, stop one setting thicker.

  6. 6

    Let the sheet rest on the board for 2 minutes so the surface dries a little — it cuts cleaner that way. Attach the fettuccine cutter and run the sheet through. Dust the ribbons with semolina and nest them on a tray.

  7. 7

    Bring a big pot of well-salted water to a boil. Cook the fettuccine until it floats and still has a little bite, 90 seconds to 3 minutes depending on thickness. Finish it in the sauce pan, not the colander.

Notes

  • 00 flour sheets a little silkier. All-purpose is what most of us have, and it makes excellent dinner.
  • Don't wash the pasta maker. Brush off the flour and wipe the rollers dry.
  • Uncooked nests freeze well: freeze on a tray, then bag. Boil from frozen and add a minute.

Special tool: Pasta maker with fettuccine cutter. See the pasta we use.