Egg Pasta Dough
I've spent years playing with different flours, fat ratios, protein percentages, semolina additions, hydration levels — and that's just the dough itself. How you roll it out is a completely different rabbit hole. This is a recipe I could write a whole book about, but to keep it short: this is the dough I reach for any time a recipe of mine calls for egg pasta.
In the north of Italy — particularly Emilia Romagna — eggs in pasta are the norm. My base ratio is 100g of flour per one extra large egg, and I recommend hunting down eggs that are rich in yolk. Roughly a third of an egg's weight is yolk, the rest is white, and that ratio is where the flavour and fat come from.
The food science part: fat and protein play very different roles in a dough. More fat (from yolks) gives you silky, snappy, rich pasta. More protein — from the flour or the egg whites — makes the dough easier to shape, gives it chew, and makes it easier to roll with a matterello. You can offset excess chew through proper drying. I want to make a full video breaking down the different pasta types and what I learned making them in Bologna — that's coming.
On rolling: I love using a matterello — the long Bolognese rolling pin — and it's how I learned. Hand-rolled pasta comes out with a slightly rougher texture, which is usually exactly what you want because it grips sauce better. But sometimes I want smooth and silky, which is best achieved with a mechanical sheeter (like a KitchenAid pasta attachment) or by working with a yolk-heavy, low-protein dough. Both are valid. They just produce different pasta.
Watch the video
Watch the reel on InstagramIngredients Serves 2
- 200 g 00 flour (or AP flour)
- 2 whole eggs, extra large
- 1 egg yolk
Instructions
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Make a well and combine. Mound the flour on a clean work surface and make a wide well in the centre — wide enough to hold the eggs without spilling. Crack the whole eggs and yolk into the well. Using a fork, beat the eggs gently, gradually incorporating flour from the inner walls of the well. Work slowly. You want to build a rough, shaggy dough before committing to kneading.
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Knead. Once the dough comes together, knead firmly with the heel of your hand for 8–10 minutes until it's smooth, elastic, and no longer sticky. If it feels too stiff, wet your hands slightly rather than adding water directly. The dough should feel like firm but responsive — pliable but with real resistance. Yolk-rich pasta should feel more like play dough. This is gluten development, and it's what gives the dough its structure for rolling.
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Rest. Wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap and let it rest at room temperature for at least 30 minutes — an hour is better. Resting lets the gluten relax, which makes rolling dramatically easier. A dough that hasn't rested will fight you; one that has rested will give. Don't skip this.
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Roll — by hand or machine. Dust your surface lightly with flour. For hand rolling with a matterello, work from the centre outward, rotating the dough a quarter turn between passes. Go thin — much thinner than you think. For a KitchenAid or pasta machine, start at the widest setting and work through progressively thinner settings, folding the dough in thirds between the first few passes to build structure. For tagliatelle or pappardelle, stop at setting 6 or 7 (I like mine thin). For filled pasta, go thinner.
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Cut and dry. Cut your pasta into the desired shape and, if making filled pasta, cook immediately or freeze to lock in shape. For unfilled pasta like tagliatelle, cut and let it dry on a either a dedicated pasta drying rack or a wire rack for at least 20 minutes--I like to go longer. Fresh pasta cooks quickly — 2–3 minutes depending on thickness — so taste it early. If you're not cooking it immediately, dust it with semolina and let it dry slightly on a rack. Fresh pasta keeps for a day in the fridge or can be frozen on a tray before transferring to a bag.
