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Easy Homemade Pasta Recipe

Nothing beats the taste you get from a fresh home made pasta recipe

Sure it might be quicker to buy it at a store, but at least when you are making homemade pasta you know exactly what's in it. With homemade pasta there are no additives and no preservatives and you can add or change flavors that suit your unique tastes.

The most popular type of pasta is spaghetti but did you know that different shapes and sizes of pasta are created that way to hold the sauces and the flavors in different ways?

Lasagna and Cannelloni are two wonderfully versatile pasta dishes that require using sheets of pasta. Lasagna is layered sheets of pasta with fillings between each layer, while cannelloni is rolled into tubes and filled with fillings.

Ravioli, tortellini or capeletti are shaped pastas filled with various delicious fillings. Once you've made your home made pasta dough it's easy to shape it into filled pasta styles. You don't even have to stick to the regular egg pasta if you'd like to try something a little different. Vegetable pasta and even potato pasta are easy to make and taste great.

Try our Tasty homemade spaghetti sauce recipe or the Creamy homemade alfredo sauce recipe

Let's make pasta....

Homemade Pasta Dough Recipe (Egg)

Ingredients:

5 medium eggs
2 cups of plain flour (500g)

Keep aside a little flour then blend the eggs and remaining flour together until they form a ball. If your dough is sticky, add a little more flour until your dough is smooth. Knead the dough until it forms a ball. It's important at this point to cover your dough with plastic wrap and leave it to relax for around half an hour.

You can then roll out your pasta either on a board with a rolling pin or you can run it through your a Pasta Machine. Once you have your pasta sheets to the thickness you desire you can then cut it down to fettucine, linguine or spaghetti thickness, depending on the homemade pasta recipe you prefer.

You might decide to leave your pasta in sheets for use in a lasagna or cannelloni recipe or you could place teaspoon-sized amounts of filling on your sheets in rows, cover them with another pasta sheet and then cut around them to create ravioli, tortellini or capeletti.

Tip:
The pasta machine will allow you to make thinner pasta and it's much quicker than hand-rolling it.
Pasta making machines are becoming more popular these days, and actually they are cheaper to buy than you might think. You can find these in specialist cook stores and at some of the bigger online stores. Try

Pasta Machines on EBay

CucinaPro 177
Fresh Pasta Machine

CucinaPro 150
Imperia Pasta Machine

CucinaPro 178
Fresh Pasta Set

When cooking your home made pasta, fill a large pot with plenty of water and plenty of salt. The salt is important because it helps to flavor the pasta while it cooks. Don't cheat and put your pasta in early. Your water should be boiling rapidly.

Pasta only takes 6-7 minutes to cook, so don't leave it boiling for too long or it will become soggy and begin to break apart.

Regular pasta goes so well with a huge range of different sauces, fillings, additions and extras. You can even add pasta to soups and bakes. But did you know you can even make flavored pasta to enhance the sauces you choose to add to them?

Let's look at some flavored pasta and some alternative homemade pasta recipes.

Homemade Herb Pasta Recipe

Ingredients :

1 tablespoon thyme leaves
1 tablespoon rosemary leaves
1 tablespoon sage leaves
1/4 cup water
2 cups flour
2 small eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cream

For this homemade pasta recipe you need to blend all ingredients in a food processor until it forms into a coarse meal. Sprinkle a little more flour on the bench and knead your dough until it's smooth. Run dough through your pasta machine until it's the thickness you want and then cut into either pasta strips or leave as lasagna or cannelloni sheets.

Homemade Potato Pasta Recipe(Gnocchi)

Ingredients :

1 kg red potatoes
3 cups plain flour
1 egg

For this homemade pasta recipe you need to boil your potatoes with the skins left on. Once the potatoes are tender, remove them from the heat and allow them to cool. Peel each potato and mash them in a large bowl. Add the flour and egg and if you wish you can add salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly until you have dough. Knead lightly, adding a little more flour if your dough is still sticky.

Roll out your dough so it's around 1/2 inch (1 cm) thick and then chop into 1 inch (2.5 cm) strips. Cut each strip into 1 inch pieces and press a fork lightly into the top of each piece to indent the top. Cook your gnocchi in batches in a large pot of boiling salted water. Your gnocchi is ready when it floats to the top.

Home Made Pumpkin Pasta

Ingredients :

2 cups of plain flour
1/8 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/4 cup pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon salt
1 egg

Blend ingredients in a food processor until it forms a ball. Sprinkle some flour on your bench and knead pasta dough until it's smooth. Roll out or run it through your pasta machine.

Hopefully you have plenty of ideas for making your own home made pasta. If you've tried our homemade pasta recipe, or if you have other recipes please feel free to share them using the form below.