Easy homemade pasta can be yours – and very inexpensively! This can be a fun family project if you have kids, too. And the taste? There is absolutely no comparison to that dry stuff in the box!
Our recipe is egg-free because one of my daughters was allergic to eggs when she was younger. I came up with this when I needed a nice wide “egg noodle” type pasta for a recipe. Even after she outgrew the allergy, we kept the recipe because it’s so delicious. This is made from 100% shelf-stable ingredients, which makes it great for preppers.
Ingredients
- 3 cups of flour
- 1 cup of warm water
- 2 tbsp of olive oil
- 1 tsp of salt
Optional: Spices of choice, up to 2 tbsp in total (garlic powder, onion powder, spinach powder, rosemary, basil…the sky is the limit!) You can also use vegetable powders to change the color of the pasta.
Directions:
- Place your flour in a large mixing bowl and stir in the salt (and any other dried spices you have opted to put in).
- Make a well in the center and pour in the water and olive oil.
- Gently incorporate the ingredients with a fork. The best way to do this is to push a little bit of the flour mixture at a time into the liquid, then add a bit more of the flour mixture, and keep doing this until it is all well-incorporated.
- Knead the mixture for about 10 minutes and then let it rest for half an hour, covered with a damp towel. When you come back to it, the dough should feel soft and silky under your fingers.
- Knead and let it rest for another half hour.
- Roll out the dough with a rolling pin, then cut it with a sharp knife, or use a crank pasta machine. You can cook it immediately or let it sit, uncovered, for half an hour. (I like to let it sit before cooking – I think it holds its shape better!)
- Depending on the thickness of your pasta, cook it in boiling water or broth from 1-2 minutes. Don’t overcook it or it will turn into mush.
It really is that easy.
If you want to get fancier, I recommend the delicious recipes in this book and if you are making it on a regular basis, life will be much easier with a pasta maker. I always recommend going manual with appliances whenever possible – this pasta maker is well-reviewed and a reasonable price.