If you’re adventurous like me and my hubby, you might enjoy making your own breads, pie shells, cakes, and more. Are you considering making your own pasta? I promise you, if you can make your own bread and pie shell, you can make homemade pasta no problem. And even if you’re not a baker, you’ll still be able to make homemade pasta. I won’t lie to you, it’s a lengthy, involved process. But if you have a day to meander around the kitchen and/or have someone to help cook, then you HAVE to try this recipe. Here’s how to make homemade pasta, specifically fettuccine, using a KitchenAid stand mixer and pasta attachment. PLUS the best protein, sauce, and wine to go with it. Seriously a beautiful, delicious dinner for a date night, holiday meal, or adventurous weekend.

First, Why Learn How to Make Homemade Pasta?

You know how store-bought pasta comes out the box all dry and stiff and brittle? Well, when that pasta was actually first made, it was soft, doughy and chewy. Have you ever been to an Italian restaurant to makes their pasta fresh in-house? Did you taste how amazing the fresh pasta was in your favorite Italian dish? How it had a nice little bite to it? This is why you should learn how to make homemade pasta and make it fresh, at least every once in a while. For weekends or holidays. The taste is outstanding and completely elevates a dinner like spaghetti or alfredo. It takes it to the next level. And truthfully, you’ll be spoiled. You’ll never want dry pasta out the box after this!

What You’ll Need to Make Pasta at Home:

• 3 1/2 cups flour, sifted (and more for preparation)
• 4 large eggs, beaten
• Salt, 1/2 tsp
• 2 tablespoons water (and more if necessary)
• Large chopping board or flat, clean surface
• Stand mixer with paddle attachment, dough hook and pasta roller attachments
• Drying rack (we literally use a clothes drying rack)
• Time (it took my hubby and I half a day on the weekend to make this recipe…so give yourself plenty of time and don’t rush it)
• Your favorite pasta recipe
• Your favorite bottle of wine

How to Make Homemade Pasta with a KitchenAid

Like I said before, give yourself plenty of time in the kitchen to make homemade pasta. This recipe is specifically for fettuccine. And at the end of the post, we’ll provide our suggestions for the best proteins, sauces and wines to go along with it. Now onto the pasta show…

First, Make the Dough

The first and probably the most exciting step in the process is forming the dough ball. Get out your KitchenAid or standing mixer, whatever you have, and mix your flour, salt, eggs and 2 tablespoons of water together on speed setting 2 for 30 seconds using the flat mixing attachment. Then you’ll replace the flat mixer with the dough hook and let it knead the dough for a few minutes on speed setting 2. This is when I had to add a little extra water, as the dough began looking too dry. I added just a tablespoon and it moistened the dough just enough. I also found that kneading the dough with your KitchenAid mixer isn’t enough. You’ll have to take the dough out, lay it on a flat floured surface, and knead it by hand. I kneaded my dough for about ten minutes until the dough bounced back when I pressed my index finger into it lightly. Once you’ve got your dough ball formed, cover in plastic wrap and leave it be for twenty minutes.

Next, Roll and Flatten the Dough

This part is fun. You’ll be using your dough attachment on your KitchenAid mixer, so go ahead and get that out and insert it (see photo below). Divide your dough ball into 4 quarters. Cover the dough you’re not currently working with again.

Next, you’re going to roll out your quarter piece of dough on a flat, floured surface until it’s about 1/2″ thick, then feed it through your pasta roller attachment. The pasta roller should be set at 1 and the mixer on speed 2/4. After the first feed-through, fold the dough in half and then half again and feed it through a few more times, starting on setting 2 then all the way up to setting 5, until you have a very thin sheet of pasta dough. It’s okay to cut it horizontally in half so that your actual pasta strips won’t be too long.

Then, Cut Your Fettuccine Pasta

The BEST part, hands down (other than actually eating it) is cutting the pasta dough into fettuccine strips. After you have 2 flattened dough pieces, it’s time to feed it through your pasta cutting attachment. We recommend fettuccine *but you can choose spaghetti, if that’s what you have/like*. Put the mixer on speed 2 and mindfully feed your first flattened dough through the pasta cutting wand. We actually used two people (4 hands) for this step. It was much easier having someone feed the dough and someone gently catch the pasta strips as they come through.

As soon as the cut pasta came out, one of us would gently drape it over a drying rack. There are actual pasta drying racks for this exact job, but we didn’t have one at the time so we used a laundry drying rack! Don’t worry, we cleaned it beforehand. LOL. Sometimes you gotta make do with whatcha got.

Lastly, Cook and ENJOY

The last piece to the homemade pasta puzzle is to cook it and enjoy it. When learning how to make homemade pasta, remember the actual cooking process takes less time than cooking the storebought dry pasta. It’s fresh, so it’ll take less time to cook. We boil ours in a pot of salted water (I salt the water until it tastes like an ocean, no kidding) for about 4-5 minutes. Then remove and drain. Add your fresh pasta directly to your sauce once ready and serve.

Best Recipes To Go With Your Homemade Pasta

Fettuccine, in my not so humble opinion, exudes it magic when drenched in a rich alfredo sauce. So that’s how we typically prepare it. But honestly, it goes great with a red sauce or nearly any Italian sauce out there. Here’s a few ways to enjoy your homemade fettucine:

• Fettucine Alfredo with Steak, Shrimp or Chicken
• Creamy Tuscan Shrimp Over Fettuccine
• Beef Bolognese
• Fettucine and Smoked Salmon in Vodka Sauce
• Cacio e Pepe (But with Fettucine Instead of Spaghetti)
• Shrimp Scampi Over Pasta
• Pasta Al Limone
• Drunken Red Wine Fettuccine
• Herby Pasta With Garlic and Green Olives
• Carbonara with Fettuccine
• Pesto Fettuccine

Wine Pairings

I’m no wine sommelier, nor do I own a vineyard, but I will give you all my best suggestions for wine pairings to go with your homemade pasta. I figure, you’ve put all the time and effort into preparing this meal, why not treat yourself to a nice glass (or ten) of wine? Here’s how I would choose my wine to go with my pasta. First, decide what I’m actually making the pasta with – is it a red or white sauce as a base? If it’s red sauce, I almost always choose a full-bodied red wine. If it’s a white sauce, choose a dry white wine. But to make it that much easier on you, here’s some wine pairing suggestions by meal:

• Homemade Fettuccine Alfredo paired with Iter Chardonnay California, 2019
• Creamy Tuscan Shrimp Over Fettuccine with King Maui Cellar Reserve Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc
• Beef Bolognese with Black Box Cabernet Sauvignon
• Fettuccine and Smoked Salmon in Vodka Sauce with Sterling Vineyards Sauvignon Blanc
• Cacio e Pepe with Fettuccine paired with Butter Chardonay
• Shrimp Scampi with Aia Vecchia Vermentino Rolle – White Wine from Italy
• Pasta Al Limone paired with Delta Pinot Noir
• Drunken Red Wine Fettuccine with Le Val Merlot
• Herby Pasta with Garlic and Green Olives paired with Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio
• Carbonara with 2019 Palladio Chianti
• Pesto Fettuccine with Caruso & Minini Naturalmente Bio Catarratto Sicilia

How to Preserve Your Pasta

If you plan to preserve your fresh homemade fettuccine pasta, there are a few ways to do so. Although we HIGHLY recommend eating it fresh. Here’s a few ways to keep it for use at a later time:

• You can refrigerate it, but be sure to use it within 24 hours
• FREEZE your homemade pasta if you’d like to preserve it for longer than a day – first, toss pasta with flour then let it air dry for an hour. Then put your semi-dry fettuccine in a container with an air-tight lid OR in a freezer bag (with as much air sucked out as possible) and freeze
• Or your last option to preserve is to dry it out completely for 12-24 hours then store in an airtight container with lid

Learn more about how to preserve pasta here.