Years ago I got a Kitchenaid stand mixer, as any aspiring home baker generally does. I love it, of course, and over time I started to think about different sorts of attachments and accessories you can get for it.
One such accessory is a pasta making set. They have a bunch of different options, all of which are mechanically basically the same: a couple of rollers powered by an attachment point in the mixer itself, hidden behind the logo. One is just rollers to flatten the dough, and the others have blades spaced at particular distances to create different kinds of pasta.
Making pasta by hand always intimidated me. All over, you read stories about how hard it is, how much work it is, how terrible the pasta can be if you don’t make it right. Nobody wants tough, chewy pasta, right? I’m a big fan of pasta, so I wanted to try it.
The ingredients list for spaghetti is super simple. All you need is flour, eggs, oil, water, and salt. In this case (as you can see in the picture above) I used Black Garlic Salt, but it didn’t really add anything noticeable to the flavor of the pasta, so I’ll just use normal salt next time.
The actual act of making the spaghetti dough is probably simpler than I made it, because I decided to make it by hand rather than in my mixer. Wild, right? Pour the flour on a surface and make a well, and add the rest of the ingredients to the well. Then, using a fork, just stir it, gradually scraping at the sides to incorporate more and more flour until it gets to be too solid to use the fork. At that point, it’s just mixing and kneading by hand.
What now? Knead, knead, knead. Knead the spaghetti dough until it’s springy and the gluten is building up. Your goal is a ball that, when you press a thumb into it, springs back most of the way. If the dough is too dry, you can add a bit of water by just moistening your hands and continuing to knead.
Next, cover and let the dough rest for at least half an hour. Then you’re ready to divide it up and start the process with the mixer attachments.
Kitchenaid’s pasta roller and spaghetti cutter have specific instructions that come with it. If you’re using another brand or a different device, refer to the instructions for it. In my case, I basically just run it through the roller to make it thinner and thinner, until it’s as wide as the roller and as thin as spaghetti. For mine, it was a 4 on the roller adjuster. Then, just run it through the cutter, and bang: there you go.
From there, all you need to do is cook the pasta, just like you would any other pasta.
Let me tell you, fresh spaghetti is both a lot easier and less intimidating than I thought it would be. It’s also really tasty. I’ll definitely be making this one frequently. Oh, and tune in next week and I’ll tell you my sauce recipe!
Homemade Spaghetti Noodles from Scratch
Equipment
- Pasta Roller
- Spaghetti Cutter
- Large Pot
- Dough Cutter
Ingredients
- 1½ Cups Flour I used all-purpose; semolina also works.
- 2 Eggs
- 1 Egg Yolk
- ½ Tbsp Olive Oil
- 1 Tsp Water
- ½ Tsp Salt
Instructions
- On a large flat surface suitable for kneading dough, make a pile out of your flour.
- Create a well in the center of the flour and add your other ingredients.
- Using a fork, stir the ingredients to work them together, gradually scraping at the sides of the well to incorporate the flour.
- Once it's too thick for the fork, switch to mixing and kneading by hand.
- Knead and knead until the dough is nicely worked. To check, press a thumb into the dough. If it mostly springs back, you're good.
- Cover the dough and let it rest for at least 30 minutes.
- Divide the dough into four or so small portions.
- Feed a portion of dough into the rollers to press and thin it out. Fold it in half and re-feed it through, to continue kneading. Once the dough becomes pliable, narrow the roller gradually until it reaches whatever your setting is for spaghetti.
- Once your dough portions have all been flattened, switch to the spaghetti cutter. Feed them through to cut your spaghetti.
- To cook, simply add to boiling water in batches, cooking for about 1-2 minutes or to your preference for texture.