Pappardelle Pasta - A Little Spoon

strips of pappardelle pasta folded onto themselves.

Get the Recipe: Pappardelle Pasta

No more dry, unmanageable pasta. This ratio-based pappardelle pasta recipe will make perfect egg pasta every time!

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Yield3 servings

Prep30

Cook5

Rest1

Total1 35

Ingredients

2 large eggs, (50-60g each)
1¼-1½ cups 00 flour, (see instructions for exact amount of flour)

Equipment

1 kitchen scale (required)
2 small bowls
cling wrap/film
1 pasta sheeter or pasta attachment
1 Rolling Pin (optional, substitiute to a machine - see FAQs)
1 cutting board
1 chef knife

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Instructions

First, place a small bowl on a kitchen scale and tare it to 0g. Next, crack 2 eggs into the bowl and weigh the eggs. Multiply the total weight of the eggs, by 1.64 to get the amount of flour needed to make your pasta dough.
Now that you have your ingredient measurements, weigh out your flour and pour it onto a clean working surface. Flatten the mound and create a well (bowl) in the center of the pile. Into that divot, add your eggs from the small bowl. Use a fork to stir the eggs and slowly incorporate flour into them. Be careful not to collapse the flour well’s wall as you move your fork around the circle. Things can get messy if the eggs are allowed to run out of the center before enough flour is mixed into them.
Once your egg mixture has thickened enough to stay put, you can begin moving all of the flour from the sides of your well into the center. When a dough begins to form, you can get your hands involved. Cover them with some of the flour on your workspace, to help with sticking. Then begin kneading the dough. Press the heel of your hand into the dough pushing it forward and indenting it. Then turn the dough a quarter turn clockwise or counter clockwise and press down again. As the dough starts to better incorporate, make sure to roll it into any stray flour until all of it is fully mixed. Any flour on your hands will also end up worked into the dough.
Continue kneading the dough until it is uniform and smooth. (typically between 5-10 minutes) When the dough is ready to rest, it should have enough gluten development that it has some spring back. To test, press a finger into the dough with the same amount of pressure you would use to press an elevator button. (We aren’t smashing those down right?) The dough should indent and then fill back in about half way over a second or two. If the dough stays fully depressed, keep kneading.
Once the dough is ready, wrap it in cling wrap and place it in your refrigerator for 30-60 minutes. After resting, remove the dough from the refrigerator and cut it into 3-4 equal pieces. Make sure to cover the pieces you aren’t currently rolling out and cutting, so they don’t dry out.
Attach a pasta attachment to your stand mixer or affix your dough sheeter to your counter top to roll out the dough. (See FAQs for instructions on how to make dough sheets without a pasta maker.) Keep plenty of flour, semolina and 00, out and ready to use while forming the pasta sheets. Lightly flour your work surface and use your hands or a rolling pin to flatten the pasta dough into a rough square about ½ in (1.3cm) thick. (Throughout the whole rolling process, if the dough starts to feel a little wet, sprinkle it and/or the machine with more flour.)
Next, set your pasta roller to the widest setting (see notes for KitchenAid settings). Typically pasta machines use the numbers 0 or 1-8, with the lowest number being the widest and the higher numbers being the thinnest. Turn on the machine to a low speed and feed the pasta dough square through the machine. Keep the machine at the widest setting and fold the dough in half or into thirds (like folding paper for an envelope). Then, re-feed it through roller. If it's in half, make sure to feed it folded side first. (This way, the two ends don’t move separately into the machine.) Repeat this fold and feed step 2-3 times. You should end up with a well-worked dough that reaches both sides of the chute, and has a relatively squared off shape.
Move onto the second widest setting, simply running the pasta sheet through once without folding. Then, move to the third, fourth, and fifth widest settings, sending the pasta dough through the chute each time. (The pasta sheet should get thinner and longer each time you go to the next setting.) If you’d like to send the pasta sheet through more than once at each setting, to be sure of the shape and thickness, feel free to do so.
For pappardelle pasta, work your way down to either the second or third to last, thickness setting. This pasta is meant to be slightly thicker than some of the more delicate styles. Once the dough piece is fully rolled out, give it a good coating of semolina flour on both sides, lay it flat, and let it dry a bit.
Repeat the process on the remaining pieces of dough, laying them out as well. After 10 minutes, return to the first piece. If needed, cut the sheet in half, so you have two sheets of equal length. Pappardelle is usually between 14-16in (35.5-38cm) long, but you can cut the length to anything you want. Then, fold the end of a sheet about 2 inches over itself. Continue rolling in 2 inch increments until you have an oblong roll of pasta. Then, use a knife to cut ¾-1in (2-2.5cm) wide strips of pappardelle pasta. Unroll the strips. Do the same rolling and cutting for the rest of the rolled pasta sheets, until you've finshed cutting them all. Then, either cook or save your pasta for another meal. (see FAQs for cooking and storage instructions.)

Notes

This dough can be used for all types of pasta with long, flat noodles, e.g. fettuccine, tagliatelle, and/or linguine.
Once you get the hang of what pasta dough should feel like, feel free to crack as many eggs as you’d like into 80-100 flour per large egg and go by feel. On the low end, you will most likely need to add more flour and on the high end you probably won't use it all. Have fun!
My KitchenAid settings go from a 1 to an 8. I prefer to stop rolling this pasta out at either a 5 or a 6 setting.
I don’t salt my pasta dough. I salt the water. (see FAQs for why)
If you really want your pasta dough pieces be the same, weigh the dough ball and divide by how many pieces you’d like to work with.
The smaller the pieces the shorter the sheets of pasta.
Instead of adding water to drier pasta (too much flour), consider adding an extra yolk for a richer pasta. (See FAQs)

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