Love homemade pasta but don’t want to mix and knead it by hand? No problem. With 4 simple ingredients that you probably have on hand, you can make Food Processor Pasta Dough in 5 minutes flat.
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Food processors are the most versatile of kitchen appliances. From making muffin batter to homemade gyro meat, there are literally endless uses for it. You might not know, though, that you can use yours to mix and knead homemade Italian pasta dough, saving you lots of time and keeping your pasta-making endeavors nearly mess-free.
“I’ve made this twice now and it is so easy. I’ve always wanted to make homemade pasta and never knew how to do it. It will be my go to pasta recipe.”
Sandy
Table of Contents
Ingredients for Food Processor Pasta Dough
- Flour: All-purpose flour. (see FAQ)
- Salt: Kosher salt or half the amount of fine sea salt.
- Eggs: Large eggs
- Olive Oil: Ideally good, extra-virgin olive oil
Once you have your homemade pasta, the rest is easy and fast. Where dried pasta typically takes 10 minutes or more to boil, fresh pasta cooks in 2-3 minutes. And layered into lasagna, there’s no need to pre-boil the noodles at all (as in my favorite Lasagna with Cottage Cheese recipe).
How to Make Food Processor Pasta Dough
Step 1: Pulse flour and salt together in food processor bowl.
Step 2: Add egg and oil and pulse until the dough just starts to come together. Then process until the dough forms a ball and breaks apart a total of 3 times (about 1 minute). This will both make and knead the dough.Shape dough into a smooth ball; cover and let stand at room temperature 30-60 minutes before rolling and cutting.
How to Freeze Fresh Pasta
Spread freshly cut pasta onto a rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment paper that you’ve dusted with flour. Freeze for 15-30 minutes to dry out the noodles so they won’t stick together. Transfer to freezer-safe storage bags or containers and enjoy within 1 month. Cook fresh pasta in 2-3 minutes, frozen pasta (no need to thaw first) for 3-5 minutes.
You can also freeze a ball of fresh pasta dough for 1 month. Thaw the dough in the refrigerator overnight before rolling and cutting it.
How to Dry Fresh Pasta
Toss fresh noodles with a little flour and arrange in a single layer on a lightly floured surface or clean kitchen towel. Alternatively, you can hang noodles on a drying rack. Let stand at room temperature for 12 to 24 hours, depending on the humidity and temperature of your kitchen. (A fan set to low speed directed at the noodles will speed this process.) You know your pasta is properly dried when it breaks when twisted. If it bends, it needs to continue drying. Dried fresh pasta will last 2 months or more when stored at room temperature in an airtight container.
Troubleshooting Fresh Pasta Dough
- Dough is too dry and crumbly: Moisture is a delicate balance when you’re making fresh pasta dough and egg size and flour absorbency can vary enough to throw it off. Add an extra yolk or a teaspoon of water at a time, processing briefly until the dough comes together into a smooth ball.
- Dough is too wet and sticky: Again, moisture level is the trickiest part of the recipe. If the dough is too sticky, add flour, one tablespoon at a time, processing briefly until the dough forms a ball.
- Dough won’t form a ball: Keep processing. It should gather into a ball, break apart, and come together again 2-3 times total. If it stays in fragments after a full minute of processing, it needs more moisture.
- Dough is tough to roll out: Make sure you’re letting it rest for the full 30-60 minutes. This helps the gluten relax and makes rolling much easier.
FAQ
Most food processors come with a plastic ‘dough blade’. Despite the name, it does not work as well for dough making as the standard metal blade, also called the ‘S blade’.
Yes. You can refrigerate fresh pasta dough for up to 1 day or freeze for up to 1 month.
Yes, and I recommend that you do. Many pasta recipes call for semolina flour, but all-purpose flour creates a more pleasing texture and offers a more reliable result. I find that semolina flour, though popular, can make sticky, gummy pasta dough.
Yes. A little bit of olive oil along with the eggs gives fresh pasta a silky texture.
When you realize freshly made pasta dough is just 5 minutes away, I hope your mind starts to rush to all of the ways you’d love to use it. Together with a manual pasta machine (here is the one I use), you can make delicate fresh pasta sheets that you can cut into any shape you like. Make pastas like spaghetti and linguine with the machine’s cutting attachments or cut homemade lasagna noodles or wide noodles like pappardelle by hand. Or, for a more rustic feel, roll and cut your dough completely by hand. Your options are limitless.
Use With
Reader Comment
“Stuck in house due to snow! Decided to try your pasta made in the food processor. I will never make it any other way!“
~Kathleen
Food Processor Pasta Dough
Video
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 3 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
Instructions
- Add flour and salt to the bowl of a food processor; pulse a few times to combine.
- In a medium bowl, mix eggs and olive oil with a fork until just combined. Pour over flour mixture in food processor. Pulse several times until no dry flour remains. Process for about 1 minute, or until dough has gathered into a rough ball then broken into small, bead-like fragments and gathered into a ball once or twice more. (This will both mix and knead the pasta dough.) If the dough gets stuck at any time, turn off the food processor and nudge the dough slightly and continue to process.
- Remove the pasta dough from the food processor and shape with your hands into a smooth ball and cover with plastic wrap. Let rest for 30-60 minutes at room temperature. Roll out immediately or refrigerate for up to 1 day (recipe note).
Notes
- Plan to use your fresh pasta dough within 1 day as the eggs will begin to oxidize and change color if refrigerated for longer. The same goes for fresh pasta noodles – you’ll want to use or freeze within 1 day and use within 1 month.
- I recommend a medium-sized food processor for this recipe, 10 to 13 cup. The one pictured is an 11-cup processor.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I like the idea of using a food processor to make pasta. Is it possible to use freshly ground white w.w flour for more nutrition pasta?
Hi Irene! It’s definitely possible, but I haven’t tested it. I can’t give you ingredient adjustments other than that you’ll need more moisture than with all-purpose flour.
Question: do you use the dough attachment or the blade for mixing?
Hi Shelia. I use the blade for mixing.
Made pasta for the first time tonight and used this recipe. Quick, easy and very good!
I love to hear this, Ellen! Thank you for coming back to let me know.
Hello Marissa I have a question for you. I’ve been making this same recipe for many years and my question has to do with once it’s done. You see I’m disabled and I have to pace myself when doing things and I like to take day one to actually make the dough and then take day two or three and roll the dough and make the shape I need. I like to use pasta dough to make homemade pierogies. I will make lasagna sheets and then cut out my rounds and fill them and seal them. Then we boil them and fry them. When I make them all in one day when I have help I will make the rounds and lay them on a clean towel and then cover them with another to keep them from drying out and then somebody else does the filling and sealing. My question is do you know a way that I could cut the rounds and be able to save them to be used within the next 2 days? This time I will be doing it all on my own and I just cannot do it all in one day by myself. I may have to wait as many as 2 days and I just don’t know how to do that without them drying out and being unusable. So I would love to have some ideas if you have any on how I could save the rounds or maybe even save the lasagna sheets in the full length that I roll them out. I’ve rolled out sheets as long as two and a half to 3 ft before and if I could keep them in the length so I could get as many rounds out of them I would appreciate that. But any idea that you have that could help me take the break that I need in between steps and saving the dough after it has been made into lasagna sheets or even the smaller rounds would be what I would like to do. I know how to save the ball of dough because I’ve done that before, but it’s just after the fact that I haven’t figured out yet. Thank you so much in advance for any ideas you may have or anybody else that may read this.
Hi Sherry! After about 18 hours in the refrigerator, your fresh dough will start to oxidize and turn a green/gray color. So I recommend freezing your dough rounds layered between wax paper or parchment paper in an airtight container and thawing them in the refrigerator the night before you plan to assemble your pierogies. You can do this up to a month in advance. I hope that helps!
Thank you so much. I freeze all the other shapes that I make and I was always leery about freezing the rounds because I don’t want them to lose their shape and size. I’m going to be making the pasta one day this week and I will try your technique with some parchment paper that I have and I’ll come back and let you all know how it turned out. I know it’s going to take me at least 4 to 5 days to fully make the pierogies on my own but at least now if this really works I won’t have to ask for help. Thanks again for your advice.
Really happy with this recipe. I added 3/4 cup of frozen spinach, just before letting the dough rest. Perfect! Thank you
My pleasure, Jennifer! I bet the spinach makes a really pretty pasta dough.
This recipe worked great when I made the first batch. When I went to X2 the cups changed but the grams did not. 272 grams for 1,2,or 3 batches.
Should be: 272, 544, 816
Hi Jan. I’m glad you enjoyed the recipe! The flour weight was a text field, but now you can scale the weight by choosing ‘Metric’ in the recipe charge and 1, 2 or 3x the recipe.
I love this recipe! So easy and turns out perfect every time. We love to make fresh tortilla with it
That’s wonderful to hear, Sarah! Thanks so much for letting me know.
I refuse to give this just 1 star because there are always variables, but I used my processor and it always seemed to come out as crumbs. I didn’t want to add more water because that will just add more gluten and possibly make the pasta tough, but I had to end up adding more egg, more anything, to get it into a ball, and even then it wasn’t very smooth. This was brand-new flour, large eggs, kosher salt, and olive oil. I have no idea what happened, but I hope it doesn’t turn out too tough :/ I’ve made pasta before and it’s always turned out really silky and smooth.
Oh no, Alli! As you said, there are a lot of variables, but I’m sorry this didn’t go well for you.
Can you use an 8 cup food processor to make pasta dough?
Hi Cheryl! I’m afraid that an 8 cup processor is too small to manage the volume of ingredients. I used an 11-cup processor (I’ve updated the recipe notes about this) and wouldn’t go smaller than a 10 cup for this recipe.
What food processor are you using that has enough gump to process the dough?
Hi Lori! I use a Cuisinart brand 11 cup food processor.
This is awesome, thank you for sharing! Do I need to adjust the recipe if using “00” flour?
Hi Luisa! I haven’t tested this recipe with “00” flour, but I’d go with a 1:1 ratio, i.e., a straight swap.
Hi Marissa –
Thank you for the quick response. I decided the first attempted should be exactly as you wrote it. The dough come out beautiful, it was very easy to work with, and my finicky husband loved it! Next time I’ll try it with the “00” flour. Thanks again, this is a keeper!
That’s wonderful, Luisa! Thank you for coming back to let me know.
I can’t wait to try this Marissa!!!! I always think I need a fancy pasta maker to make homemade pasta so I’ve refrained from doing it. I’ll let you know how it goes!! 🙂
Wonderful! I hope that you and your family will love it, Katherine.
Certainly, you cannot beat homemade pasta (But I must admit I haven’t made it for 3 or 4 years. Perhaps, I should pull my dusty pasta roller machine!) Interesting note on semolina; I’ll need to try with both types of flour. And of course, I look forward to your pasta creation(s). (Because you didn’t make the dough just for fun, did you!)
Thanks, Ben! haha…and you’ve got me figured out. Recipes to use this coming soon!
I used to be all about making dough by hand, but I’ve switched over to using the food processor for pie dough. This sounds like a similar process – and I do love homemade pasta. Win-win!!
Similar, but even easier! So excited for you to try this method, David.
Well, yes(!) I absolutely love homemade pasta! While I do find kneading the dough by hand therapeutic, I very rarely have the time (or patience if I’m not home alone – lol)! I’ve never tried making pasta dough in the food processor, but this is GENIUS! And SO easy!!! Can’t wait to try this so homemade pasta night can become a regular thing in our dinner rotation!
Thanks so much, Chey! I hope you’ll love this.
Homemade pasta must have tasted super fresh and yummy!
Absolutely. Thanks, Angie.