Pasta Fresca all'Uovo

Fresh egg pasta is two ingredients — Type 00 flour and eggs — and one technique. The dough can be made in 15 minutes; it requires 30 minutes of rest before rolling. The result is a silky, rich pasta that behaves differently from dry pasta with butter-based and egg-based sauces.

This recipe produces the base dough. The finished shape — tagliatelle, pappardelle, or lasagne sheets — depends on how you cut it.

Ingredients (4 servings)

• 200g Type 00 flour (farina 00)
• 200g eggs (4 large eggs, approximately 50g each)

Instructions

1. Make the dough Mound the flour on a clean work surface. Make a well in the centre. Crack the eggs into the well. Beat the eggs gently with a fork, gradually incorporating flour from the inner walls of the well. When the mixture becomes too thick to use a fork, switch to your hands.

Knead for 8–10 minutes until the dough is smooth, elastic, and slightly tacky — not sticky. The dough should spring back slowly when pressed with a finger.

Wrap tightly in cling film or place in a sealed container. Rest at room temperature for 30 minutes minimum. This relaxes the gluten and makes rolling significantly easier.

2. Roll Divide the dough into 2–4 pieces. Work with one piece at a time; keep the rest covered.

With a pasta machine: start at the widest setting, fold and re-roll twice, then progressively work down to setting 5 or 6 (approximately 1.5mm thickness).

By hand: use a long, thin rolling pin and work the dough outward from the centre, rotating 90° between rolls.

3. Cut For tagliatelle: roll the sheet loosely and cut into 5–6mm ribbons. For pappardelle: cut into 2cm ribbons. For lasagne: cut into 10 × 15cm sheets.

4. Cook Fresh pasta cooks very quickly — 2–3 minutes in vigorously boiling salted water. Taste at 2 minutes. It should be tender but with slight resistance.

Notes

The ratio 1:1 by weight (100g flour per 100g eggs, approximately 2 large eggs per 100g flour) is the Italian standard for egg pasta. Some recipes use only yolks for a richer, more golden result — this increases cost significantly.

For a machine-free version, the dough is identical. Hand-rolling requires more effort but produces an excellent result.

Cost Context

At Italian supermarket prices (Q1 2025): farina-00 (€1.00/kg) and uova (€5.00/kg, free-range mid-range). Total for 4 servings: approximately €1.20 — roughly €0.30 per serving. This is the lowest-cost pasta recipe in the calculator. Compare to pasta secca at approximately €0.13/serving — fresh pasta costs more than 2× the dry pasta baseline, primarily due to egg cost.