You can’t substitute fresh pasta. Fresh noodles taste completely different than the typical dry stuff you find in the store, and although it takes a little extra work, it’s totally worth doing every now and then. This dough is very versatile, it’s just a big chunk of dough. Even if you don’t have a pasta roller you can still make some very tasty pasta with some more “rustic” methods.

Pasta dough is also super easy to make in advance and use later in the day or the next day. This recipe makes enough pasta for 4 people.

Ingredients:

• • 3 cups flour
  • 3 Large Eggs
  • 1Tbsp Oil
  • 1Tbsp Salt

Directions:

It’s pretty easy…

1. 1. Throw everything into the bowl in this order: 2.5 cups flour, eggs, oil, salt.
   2. Go at it with a wooden mixing spoon to get everything hydrated and partially mixed. It’s going to be a bit craggly, don’t worry about that.
   3. Once you can’t see any bits of egg, scrape your spoon off and get your hands dirty. I like keeping everything in the bowl as it makes for an easier cleanup, but do what ever you need to do. Try to work in as much of that last half cup of flour as possible.
   4. Knead the dough until it all comes together into a nice dough ball. This can take a bit of convincing, but shouldn’t be too hard. Once its all together, knead for another minute or so and you’re good.
   5. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap completely and let it rest around 20 minutes. The more you work the dough, the tougher it gets, so by resting we let that tension release and the dough is a lot easier to work with.

You have your pasta dough! This stuff can be used in all kinda of ways, roll it out into thin sheets and cut into spaghetti or fettuccine. Roll into thin sheets to cut into squares and stuff with a cheese filling to get tortellini. What ever you want! Bon Appétit made this great video detailing all types of ways to make pasta, a lot of which you only need your hands and roll very quickly. So check it out, there are a lot of cool ways to make pasta that are all delicious!

Remember too, fresh pasta cooks much more quickly than dry stuff, so depending on what you’re making and how much, it should be only be around 3-4 minutes to cook. If you have chunkier, thicker pasta, its going to take longer, if you have thinner pasta, it will be faster. So don’t walk away and make sure to steal as much pasta to taste as its cooking!

Speaking of cooking, get a nice pot of water, generously season with salt, boil and add your pasta. This pasta will have more flour on it from rolling it out, so be careful as when cooking the flour will make it easily over boil, so keep a close eye.