An egg yolk sitting in a well of flour on a wooden board, with cut noodles and cracked shells behind

Your first batch, step by step

Flour, salt, three eggs, an hour

Tested recipe to start with

King Arthur Baking: Fresh Pasta Tested first recipe: flour, salt and semolina from the kit, plus 3 large eggs

What you can make in your first month

Fettuccine with butter and Parmesan

The first recipe cut on the machine's wide cutter, the best way to judge your dough with nothing to hide behind.

Hand-cut pappardelle

Wide ribbons sliced with the cutter wheel from a rolled sheet, no cutting attachment needed.

Farfalle

Small rectangles pinched in the middle, which teaches you to keep sheets from drying out while you shape.

A freezer stash

A double batch of nests frozen on a sheet tray, then bagged, ready to cook straight from frozen on a weeknight.

Your first niche dish

A tray of potato gnocchi, a dozen cheese ravioli, or a bowl of slapped flat noodles, depending on the direction you pick.

Where to take it next

Gnocchi makingSoft potato dumplings that need no machine at all, only a ricer, a light hand and a ridged board for the grooves that hold sauce.

Start here

Bake or microwave a pound of russet potatoes, rice them while they are still hot, and make one batch of gnocchi with as little flour as the dough will take.

King Arthur Baking: Potato Gnocchi

Ravioli makingThin sheets folded around a filling and sealed with a stamp, the step up once your sheets roll evenly.

Start here

Make a batch of ricotta filling, roll your dough a notch thinner than for noodles, and stamp a dozen ravioli. Freeze any you do not cook that night.

King Arthur Baking: Homemade Cheese Ravioli

Hand-pulled noodlesA wetter bread-flour dough rested overnight and stretched by hand into long, chewy noodles, no machine or cutter involved.

Start here

Mix a bread-flour dough a day ahead, rest it oiled in the fridge overnight, then stretch and slap a few pieces into wide flat noodles while the water boils.

King Arthur Baking: Biang Biang Noodles

The skills that matter early

Reading the dough

It should feel firm and a little tacky, like modeling clay. Too dry and it cracks in the machine; too wet and it sticks and tears.

Kneading and resting

Kneading builds the stretch, and the rest lets it relax. Skipping either is the usual cause of a sheet that shrinks back.

Rolling thin, evenly

One setting at a time, never jumping two, with the sheet kept the full width of the rollers.

Keeping it from drying out

Cover the dough you are not rolling, and cut or fill sheets within a few minutes before the edges go leathery.

Cooking to the right point

Fresh pasta goes from firm to soft in under a minute, so start tasting early.

Rows of fresh fettuccine coiled into nests and dusted with flour on a tray — Dusted and coiled, ready for the pot

Choosing and caring for a pasta machine

Pick a hand-cranked roller with a clamp, chrome-plated or stainless steel rollers about 6 inches (150 mm) wide, and around nine thickness settings. A fettuccine and a thin-noodle cutter usually come with it.
Check the clamp fits your counter or table edge before buying. A machine that walks across the counter while you crank is the most common complaint.
Before the first batch, run a scrap of dough through every setting a few times and throw it away to pick up any factory oil or grit.
Never wash the machine in water or the dishwasher. Let any stuck dough dry, then brush it out with a dry pastry brush or a wooden skewer.
Dust the sheet, not the rollers. Too much flour or semolina builds up in the cutters and is hard to clear.

What trips beginners up

Expect the first batch or two to be uneven: thick spots, ragged edges and a few torn sheets are normal and still taste good.
Flour and eggs vary, so the same recipe can feel dry one day and sticky the next. Adjust by feel, not by the cup.
Gnocchi and ravioli each take a few tries: gummy gnocchi and burst ravioli are part of learning where the limits are.
Hand-pulled noodles break for nearly everyone at first, and they need a dough made a day ahead.
Habit to dropAdding flour every time the dough feels tacky. Rest it ten minutes first; it often firms up on its own.
Habit to dropCutting straight after rolling with no semolina, which glues the strands into one clump.
Habit to dropCrowding the pot. Use at least 4 quarts of water per pound so the boil comes back fast.

Ridged potato gnocchi beside a ball of their dough on a floured wooden board — Gnocchi rolled down a ridged board

Food safety

Do not taste raw dough. Raw flour can carry E. coli and raw eggs can carry Salmonella, so the dough is only safe once it is cooked.
Fresh egg pasta is perishable: refrigerate it covered and cook it within one to two days, or freeze it.
To freeze, spread nests, gnocchi or ravioli on a floured sheet tray until solid, then bag them. Use within about a month and cook from frozen, adding a minute or two.
Ricotta-filled ravioli follow the same rules as the cheese inside them: keep them cold and never leave them out for more than two hours.
Wash hands, the counter, and every tool that touched raw egg or dough in hot soapy water (except the pasta machine, which you brush clean dry).
Keep fingers, long hair and loose sleeves clear of the rollers while cranking, especially with children helping.

Where to learn more

Watch an experienced cook shape pasta by hand: seeing the dough's texture teaches more than any written description.
Make the tested recipe exactly as written the first time, then change one thing per batch (a little more egg, a thinner setting) so you can tell what each change does.
If you need it gluten-free, start from a recipe written for a gluten-free flour blend with xanthan gum. Those doughs roll best a little thicker and tear more easily, so cut wide shapes.

Free videos, tips and recipes

Hands rolling a sheet of egg pasta around a long wooden pin on a floured table — Rolling a sheet by hand with a long pin

What the kit covers

The base kit is the first recipe's shopping list plus the one tool that makes rolling easy. Flour and semolina run a few dollars a batch, and the eggs come from your fridge. The pasta machine is the only real spend, and a basic hand-cranked one rolls as well as a pricey one for years if you keep it dry. A rolling pin and a sharp knife you already own work if you would rather start without a machine. The niche add-ons are small, cheap tools, so add only the ones for the direction you want to try.

Close-up of fresh ravioli with fluted edges, dusted with flour

Set up the pasta board

One pick per line

The flours, salt and machine make the first recipe; the scraper and cutter wheel make every batch after that easier. The gnocchi, ravioli and hand-pulled noodle gear starts out of the kit until you switch on its add-on. Clicking a card selects it on the board list, and clicking the selected card again takes that line out.

Italian 00 flour for pasta

Essential · Ingredients

Finely milled soft-wheat flour rolls into a silky, thin sheet that stays tender after cooking.

budget

00 Antimo Caputo Pasta & Gnocchi Flour 2.2 Lb Bag- Italian Double Zero Grain Type - Extracted Wheat Blend - All Natural for Pasta Fresca Dough (2.2LB Bag)

4.7(1,254)

$9.99

Pasta Making

Your first batch, step by step

Where to take it next

The skills that matter early

Choosing and caring for a pasta machine

What trips beginners up

Food safety

Where to learn more

What the kit covers

Set up the pasta board

Italian 00 flour for pasta

Semolina flour (semola rimacinata)

Fine sea salt

Manual pasta machine

Stainless steel bench scraper

Fluted pasta cutter wheel

Potato ricer

Wooden gnocchi board

Ravioli stamp set

High-protein bread flour

Spider strainer skimmer