Egg-based pasta dough has such a luxurious texture and a beautiful golden color. It’s malleable and forgiving, which makes it perfect for both long cuts of pasta and sheets of dough for filled pasta, like ravioli.
There’s no one way to make pasta dough. Different recipes serve different purposes. This is my favorite way to make it, which is similar to how my Nonna used to make it. It’s also close to Thomas Keller’s recipe. His has some differences, like milk, olive oil, and only Tipo “00” flour.
Pasta Dough (Egg)
A silky and luxurious golden pasta dough that's great for large cuts and filled pasta.
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Whisk egg yolks and about 30 ml of room-temperature water in a mixing bowl until thoroughly combined
- If you are using a stand mixer, skip to those steps
- Combine all dry ingredients then with a fork and make a well in the center of the mound
- Pour wet ingredients into well
- Slowly combine in a clockwise motion with a fork in a spiral form from the middle to the outside of the dough until uniformly incorporated
- With your hands, form dough into a ball
Stand Mixer Steps
- Using the whisk attachment, combine all dry ingredients at a low speed
- Switch to the dough hook attachment
- Slowly pour in wet ingredients and combine until ball forms around the hook
In Case of Emergency
- If the dough does not come together, slowly add more water (no more than an ounce at a time) and continue to incorporate it
- If the dough ball is sticky, slowly incorporate more durum or use semolina for a coarser texture.
Next Steps
- Flour surface liberally with semolina and knead the dough ball for five minutes if a stand mixer was used to form the dough or 10 minutes if it was done by hand.
- Cover dough (wrap, sealable bag, or bowl with damp tea towel) and let rest in fridge for no less than five hours.
For help kneading dough, visit our tutorial here.