Making homemade pasta is something that many people find intimidating. However the reality is that making pasta at home is super easy. This homemade fettuccine is one of my favorite pastas to make when I want to whip up a seriously impressive meal with little effort!
While most people use dry pasta when cooking, I love to make fresh pasta every once in a while, especially if I am having guests over. Making homemade pasta is also a great activity to do with kids!
I have some great fresh pasta recipes on this site and am continually adding more. But when I realized I didn’t have a single homemade fettuccine guide it was a great excuse to make some! I actually made this pasta for a couple new recipes like a classically Italian fettuccine porcini, and a Cheesecake factory copycat chicken and sun dried tomato fettuccine.
Why Make Homemade Pasta?
The only reason to make homemade pasta over dry pasta is personal preference. There is absolutely nothing wrong with using a box of dry pasta. In fact, depending on the pasta type, I often prefer dry over fresh.
Pastas like penne, rigatoni, macaroni, are all better dry than fresh in my opinion. After all, who just happens to have a bronze cast extruder in their home kitchen.
How To Make Homemade Fettuccine Pasta
All of my Italian fresh pasta recipes use the exact same ingredients. It doesn’t matter if I am making a ravioli or a pappardelle, or in this case a fettuccine. This is different than my Chinese hand pulled noodles for example which only needs flour, water, and salt.
Ingredients
- 2 cups Flour – I use AP flour but you can use a cup of AP and a cup of Semolina if you like, which is a popular method in Italy.
- 2 tbsp Olive Oil – try to find something cold pressed, extra virgin as you really want to use high quality olive oil when making fresh pasta.
- 3 large Eggs – room temperature
- 1 tsp Salt
Add all of your ingredients to a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment and let knead at the lowest setting until combined. You can also do this by hand on a flat, floured surface; I just find the stand mixer to remove a TON of work.
When the dough is pulled into a nice tight ball you can take it out of the mixer. Knead it into a ball and place it in a bowl to rest for a half hour. This lets the gluten activate more and create a great mouthfeel when you eat your homemade fettuccine.
After resting the dough, move it to a floured surface and cut it into four pieces. I find four pieces to be a good amount as each piece is a very hearty serving per person. Note: if you are serving pasta in the traditional Italian way as a primi, then each quarter makes a serving for two people.
I use my French rolling pin to shape the dough piece into a flat-ish rectangle. Then feed the dough into a pasta roller starting at the largest thickness and moving thinner. I use a classic hand-cranked Imperial machine, so I go to the second thinnest setting (the thinnest is for wonton or gyoza wrappers).
My Imperial pasta roller has a cutting attachment for linguine (small) and fettuccine (big). I just put that on and run the sheet of pasta through it while hand cranking at a even pace. Then move all your fettuccine strips back to the floured surface and toss them in flour so they do not stick to each other.
Recipes To Make With Homemade Fettuccine
- Fettuccine Porcini
- Sun-dried Tomato Fettuccine (Cheesecake Factory Copycat)
- Fettuccine Alfredo
- Yellow Pesto Fettuccine
- Seafood Pasta
Homemade Fettuccine
Equipment
- 1 Stand Mixer (optional) with hook attachment
- 1 Pasta Roller (optional) either electric or hand cranked
- 1 rolling pin
Ingredients
- 2 cups Flour AP or a mix of AP and Semolina
- 2 tbsp Olive OIl cold pressed, extra virgin
- 3 large Eggs room temperature
- 1 tsp Salt
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer add all the ingredients. Run the machine for roughly 10 minutes, or until everything is well kneaded and you have a stretchy, elastic ball of pasta
- Place ball in a bowl and cover with a towel. Let sit for 30 minutes.
- Flour your surface and divide ball into 4 pieces. Use the rolling pin to shape them into flat-ish rectangels.
- Feed the dough through the pasta roller starting at the thickest setting and moving down until desired thinness. On my machine (Imperial) it is the second to last thickness setting, yours should be similar.
- Attach the fettuccine cutter into the rolling machine and feed the dough through the cutters. Toss the freshly cut fettuccine in some flour so the strands do not stick together.
- To cook the fresh pasta you will not need more than 2 minutes as fresh pasta cooks much faster than dry pasta. Watch the pot so you can get it perfectly al dente.
Notes
