The foundational ratio is 100g Tipo 00 flour to one large egg (approximately 55-60g in shell), yielding enough pasta for a single generous serving. For four people, 400g flour and 4 eggs. This ratio produces a dough at roughly 30% hydration — significantly drier than bread dough — which is precisely why it rolls thin without springing back and cooks to a texture that is tender yet resistant to the tooth: the defining quality Italians call al dente, which in fresh pasta means something subtler and more yielding than in dried. Flour selection is where your pasta begins to declare itself. Tipo 00 (doppio zero) is milled to the finest granulation in the Italian system, producing a silky, low-friction dough that rolls effortlessly and yields a delicate, almost satiny sheet — ideal for filled pastas like tortellini, agnolotti, and ravioli, where the wrapper must be thin enough to feel the filling through it. Semola rimacinata (re-milled durum wheat semolina) is coarser, higher in protein, more golden in colour, and produces a firmer, more textured pasta with a slightly rough surface that grips sauce — this is the flour for orecchiette, cavatelli, and pici. Many accomplished pasta makers blend the two: 70% Tipo 00, 30% semola rimacinata, capturing the workability of the first and the bite of the second. The quality hierarchy: (1) Competent — the dough is smooth, rolls without tearing, and cooks evenly. (2) Skilled — the sheet is uniformly thin (1-2mm for tagliatelle, under 1mm for filled shapes), the pasta has a faint golden translucence when held to light, and it cooks in 90 seconds to 3 minutes depending on thickness. (3) Transcendent — the pasta has a barely perceptible chew that yields to the tooth in a single clean bite, the egg flavour is present but not dominant, the surface has enough microscopic texture to hold sauce, and the noodle feels alive — springy, light, almost breathing on the plate. Sensory tests: after kneading, the dough should feel like the earlobe — smooth, supple, giving but with resistance beneath. Press a thumb into the surface: it should spring back slowly, not instantly (too tight) or not at all (too wet). The smell should be clean wheat and egg, nothing sour. When rolling through a machine, the sheet should not stick, crack at the edges, or develop holes; if it does, the dough needed more kneading or resting. Knead for a minimum of 8-10 minutes by hand — this is where the dish lives or dies. You are developing gluten, aligning protein strands, and creating the elastic network that allows the dough to stretch thin without tearing. The dough will transform from shaggy and rough to glass-smooth. Wrap tightly in cling film and rest at room temperature for 30 minutes minimum, 1 hour ideally. Resting relaxes the gluten, making rolling dramatically easier. Where the dish lives or dies: the thinness of the sheet relative to its purpose. Tagliatelle rolled too thin disappears under ragù; rolled too thick, it becomes leaden and doughy. Ravioli wrappers rolled too thick taste of raw flour at the sealed edges. There is no universal thickness — only the correct thickness for each shape, learned through repetition and honest self-assessment. The Japanese tradition of hand-pulled udon and the Chinese lamian share this same truth: dough is a living dialogue between flour, water, protein, and the hands that shape it.
Egg-to-flour ratio governs everything. Too much egg produces a sticky, unworkable dough that absorbs excessive flour during rolling, creating tough, heavy pasta. Too little egg yields a crumbly dough that tears when stretched. Weigh your flour; measure eggs by cracking into a bowl first and verifying weight. Egg size varies more than most cooks realise — a 'large' egg can range from 50g to 65g, a 25% variance that fundamentally changes hydration. Flour protein content matters. Tipo 00 typically runs 8-10% protein — lower than bread flour, higher than cake flour — providing enough gluten for structure without the toughness that high-protein flours bring. If substituting, avoid bread flour (too strong) and all-purpose can work but produces a slightly less refined texture. Temperature affects workability: cold eggs make a stiffer dough; room-temperature ingredients integrate more readily. Kneading technique should use the heel of the palm in a push-fold-turn rhythm, not punching or tearing. The gluten window test (stretching a small piece until light passes through without tearing) applies to pasta dough as it does to bread dough — when achieved, the dough is ready. Rolling should progress gradually through machine settings — never skip more than one setting at a time, or the sheet develops internal stress that causes it to shrink back. Dust with semola rimacinata, never Tipo 00, when cutting and storing — semola's coarser grain prevents sticking without dissolving into the surface. Boil fresh pasta in heavily salted water at a rolling 100°C/212°F. Fresh pasta cooks in 60-90 seconds for thin sheets, 2-3 minutes for filled shapes. The water temperature must not drop below 95°C/203°F when pasta is added — use at least 4 litres per 500g.
Add one extra yolk per 200g of flour for richer colour and a more tender bite — this is the sfogline tradition of Bologna, where the pasta sheets are famously golden and almost translucent. For shapes that will be dried (like trofie or busiate), replace eggs with water and use 100% semola rimacinata for a dough that dries evenly and rehydrates beautifully during cooking. When making filled pasta, work fast — egg dough dries quickly, and dry edges will not seal, causing the filling to leak during cooking. Keep unused dough wrapped at all times. A spritz of water on the edges before sealing, pressed firmly with fingertips to exclude air, ensures airtight parcels. Cook fresh pasta in abundantly salted water (15g per litre) at a vigorous boil, and finish in the sauce with a splash of pasta water — the starch-enriched water emulsifies the sauce and binds it to the noodle in a way that draining and topping never achieves.
Adding olive oil to the dough. This is one of the most persistent myths in home cooking. Oil coats gluten strands and prevents them from bonding, producing a weaker, more fragile dough that tears during rolling and turns mushy when cooked. Traditional egg pasta from Emilia-Romagna — the birthplace of tagliatelle, tortellini, and lasagne — contains no oil. Period. Under-kneading is the second most common failure: a dough that has not been worked for at least 8 minutes will be rough, tear when rolled thin, and cook unevenly. Over-flouring during rolling creates a dry, crackly surface and a starchy mouthfeel in the finished dish. Using the wrong flour for the wrong shape — Tipo 00 alone for orecchiette, for instance, produces an insufficiently textured surface that cannot hold the pork ragù it is designed for. Not resting the dough, or resting it uncovered, so it forms a dry skin that cracks during sheeting. Cooking fresh pasta as though it were dried — fresh pasta cooks in 1-3 minutes, not 8-12, and an extra minute in the water destroys the texture entirely.