From scratch · Pasta and noodles
Fresh egg pasta
Flour and eggs, rolled by hand and cut into fettuccine, spaghetti-style strands or lasagna sheets.
✋ 45 min hands-on
⏱ 1 hr 15 min start to finish
🍽 About 1 lb of fresh pasta, which stands in for about ¾ lb of dried (fresh pasta holds more water). Serves 4 as a main dish.
ContainsWheat, Eggs.
Ingredients
- 300 g all-purpose flour
- 3 eggs, large
- 1½ g table salt
- 1 tbsp water, only if the dough is dry (optional)
Time
Hands-on time is when you’re busy; the rest is rising, simmering, chilling or cooling, when you can do something else.
| Step | Hands-on | Waiting |
|---|---|---|
| Mix and knead the dough | 15 min | 30 min |
| Roll and cut the pasta | 30 min | – |
| In all | 45 min | 30 min |
How long it keeps
- Refrigerator: cook it right away, or refrigerate it covered up to 3 days. Don’t leave it drying at room temperature more than 2 hours (Iowa State Extension).
- Freezer: dust with flour, make loose nests, freeze on a tray, then bag them, for 3 to 6 months. Cook straight from frozen, a minute or two longer.
Nutrition
Estimated from the ingredients’ USDA FoodData Central numbers.
Steps
You’ll need: large board or clean counter, fork, rolling pin (a long, thin one is easiest), sharp knife, baking sheet.
- Mound the flour on the counter with the salt and make a wide well in the middle. Crack the eggs into the well and beat them with a fork, pulling in flour from the inside wall a little at a time.
- When it gets too thick to stir, push it together with your hands. Knead 8 to 10 minutes until smooth and firm, like modeling clay. Add water a few drops at a time only if it won’t come together.
- Wrap it and rest 30 minutes at room temperature so it rolls out easily.
- Cut the dough in quarters; keep the others wrapped. On a lightly floured counter roll one piece from the center outward, turning it often, until it is thin enough to see your hand through, about 1/16 inch.
- Fettuccine: dust the sheet with flour, roll it up loosely into a flat log, and slice it ¼ inch wide. Shake out the strands.
- Spaghetti-style: roll the sheet a little thicker (about ⅛ inch) and cut ⅛-inch strips. They come out square-edged, like the pasta Italian cooks cut on a wire frame; perfectly round spaghetti needs an extruder.
- Lasagna sheets: cut the rolled sheet into rectangles to fit your pan, about 4 × 12 inches for a 9 × 13. Boil them 1 minute, or layer them in unboiled when the sauce is on the loose side.
- Cook fresh pasta in plenty of boiling salted water 2 to 4 minutes, until tender with a little bite.
⚖️ ScalingUse 100 g (about ¾ cup) flour per large egg and scale by whole eggs: 2 eggs for about ½ lb of dried-pasta’s worth, 4 eggs for about 1 lb. Don’t scale rolling by hand much past 4 eggs at once; roll in batches.
🛡 SafetyDon’t taste raw dough or batter, and wash your hands and the counter after handling flour: raw flour can carry germs that only baking kills (FDA).
🛡 SafetyRaw egg dough is a raw food until it is cooked; cooking is the step that makes it safe (Iowa State Extension).
Sources
- Homemade Egg Noodles Made Safe, Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, AnswerLine (updated 2026). Accessed 2026-10-25.
- Handling Flour Safely: What You Need to Know, U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Accessed 2026-10-25.