Pasta Dough Recipe: Ingredients, Flour, Eggs & Ratios Explained

Good pasta dough comes down to three things: the flour, the amount of moisture and the texture you knead it to. For classic fresh egg pasta, the ratio to remember is 100g of flour and one large egg per person. That gets you very close to the dough for tagliatelle, fettuccine, lasagne and many filled pastas, but it is only a starting point. Egg size varies, flour absorbs moisture differently, and some pasta doughs use yolks, water, semolina or a blend of flours instead.

So ask what the dough should feel like as well as what the recipe is. A well-made pasta dough is firm, smooth and elastic, never sticky like bread dough and never so dry that it cracks when you roll it.

If you would rather have a chef check your dough by hand, this Naples class teaches fresh fettuccine and ravioli. See its open dates here, as class times vary by season:

If you haven’t picked a class yet, our guide to cooking classes in Naples compares the options.

Pasta dough at a glance

The easy 100g-of-00-flour-to-one-egg formula is the one most basic pasta guides teach, including BBC Good Food’s. Other fresh pasta recipes change it by adding extra yolks or blending 00 flour with semolina.

Other experiences you might enjoy in Naples

Try a Neapolitan pizza class, a food tour of the Quartieri Spagnoli, or a trip to Pompeii and Mount Vesuvius.

Basic fresh egg pasta dough recipe

This is the version to learn first.

Ingredients for 2 people

• 200g Tipo 00 flour
• 2 large eggs
• extra flour or fine semolina for dusting

Ingredients for 4 people

• 400g Tipo 00 flour
• 4 large eggs
• extra flour or fine semolina for dusting

Italian recipes for tagliatelle use the same proportion: GialloZafferano’s version takes 300g Tipo 00 flour and three eggs. For the step-by-step method, from the flour well to cutting ribbons, see our fresh pasta recipe.

The most useful pasta dough ratio

1 large egg for every 100g of flour

A ratio is more useful than one fixed recipe because you can scale it for any table. Don’t treat it like chemistry, though. If your eggs are small, the dough may need a little more moisture; if they are large, you may not need every gram of flour. A good pasta maker adjusts the final dough by feel.

Why pasta dough recipes don’t all use the same ratio

Look up pasta dough and you’ll find recipes that seem to contradict each other: one uses whole eggs, another whole eggs plus yolks, another 00 flour with semolina, and another semolina and water. They are not competing versions of one recipe; they make different kinds of pasta.

BBC Good Food’s richer homemade pasta, for example, uses 300g 00 flour with two whole eggs and four yolks, a much richer dough than the one-egg-per-100g formula. GialloZafferano’s tonnarelli combine 400g 00 flour, 100g semolina and five eggs. There is no single universal pasta dough, only families of doughs.

What flour should you use for pasta?

This is the part that confuses most beginners. You will usually see three terms: Tipo 00 flour, semolina and semola rimacinata. Packaging can make them look more mysterious than they are.

Tipo 00 flour

Tipo 00 is a very finely milled Italian soft-wheat flour and the easiest one to recommend for classic fresh egg pasta. It makes a dough you can roll very thin without it turning coarse or gritty. It is the usual flour for:

• tagliatelle
• fettuccine
• pappardelle
• lasagne sheets
• ravioli
• tortellini

BBC Good Food recommends 00 flour for egg pasta, noting that its fine milling and protein help the dough survive rolling and cutting. Jamie Oliver’s basic egg pasta uses it too. Not every 00 flour is the same, though: some are milled for pasta or cakes and others for pizza, so a bag labelled for pasta is the safe pick. Our Neapolitan pizza dough guide explains how pizza 00 differs.

Can you use plain flour?

Yes. If you can’t find Tipo 00, ordinary plain or all-purpose flour still makes perfectly good homemade pasta. The texture can be slightly different and the dough may behave a little differently when you roll it, but it is no reason to give up on the recipe. A strong plain flour also works.

Avoid self-raising flour: you don’t want a raising agent in pasta dough. BBC Good Food advises against it for pasta.

What is semolina?

Semolina comes from durum wheat, a hard wheat closely tied to pasta-making. The terms get confusing here, because the coarse semolina sold for puddings is not always what you want for handmade pasta. For dough, look for semola rimacinata or finely milled durum-wheat semolina. BBC Good Food describes semolina flour as the basis of the classic flour-and-water dough of southern Italy.

00 flour vs semolina: what’s the difference?

The two overlap, and some Italian recipes blend them on purpose: GialloZafferano’s fresh tonnarelli use both Tipo 00 and semolina. Neither flour is more “authentic”; they belong to different branches of Italian pasta-making.

Why does southern Italian pasta often use semolina and water?

Because Italy doesn’t have one pasta tradition. Northern and central Italy are most closely tied to fresh egg pasta, while southern Italy has a deep tradition of doughs made from durum semolina and water. BBC Good Food sums up the pattern the same way: egg dough leans north, flour-and-water dough is widespread in the south, with plenty of crossover.

That matters if you are learning to cook in Naples. Don’t assume the only “authentic” fresh pasta is bright yellow egg dough.

Basic semolina-and-water pasta dough

A good starting formula for four people:

• 400g fine durum semolina
• about 190–200ml tepid water

Food & Travel’s tagliatelle recipe uses this ratio. Another easy rule is about 100g semolina to 45–50ml water. Hydration depends on the flour, so start with less water than you think: you can always add more, but it is hard to take it out. This dough is firmer than egg dough and suits shapes formed with fingers, knives, boards or small traditional tools.

Egg dough vs semolina dough

The two doughs behave differently in your hands.

Egg pasta dough

Usually 00 flour and eggs. It feels firm, elastic and smooth, and turns supple after resting. It suits rolling into thin sheets.

Semolina dough

Usually fine durum semolina and water. It feels firmer, a little more resistant and less silky, and it is excellent for shaping by hand. BBC Good Food describes its semolina dough as smooth and robust, closer to plasticine than to a sticky or very elastic dough.

Do you need whole eggs or egg yolks?

Both work. Whole eggs bring protein, fat and water. Yolks add richness, a deeper yellow colour and a softer texture, with less water per gram than whole egg. That is why some restaurant pasta doughs include extra yolks; BBC Good Food’s richer version combines two whole eggs and four extra yolks with 300g flour.

You don’t need to start there. For a first pasta dough, whole eggs are simpler and cheaper.

Should pasta dough contain salt?

It can, but it doesn’t need to. Many Italian pasta dough recipes contain no salt, because the pasta cooks in salted water; others add a small pinch. The difference is minor next to flour choice, hydration, kneading and resting. While you are learning, keep the dough simple and salt the cooking water properly.

Should you add olive oil to pasta dough?

Not for a basic egg pasta. Some home recipes add olive oil, a little water or salt because oil makes the dough feel more supple, but none of them is essential. For a first attempt, flour and eggs are enough, and understanding the basic dough before you add anything makes problems much easier to trace.

How to mix pasta dough

You can mix on the worktop, in the classic flour well, or in a bowl if you’d rather not chase an escaping egg across the counter. Either way you beat the eggs in the middle and draw the flour in gradually. Both methods are written out step by step in our fresh pasta recipe.

Do you have to use all the flour?

No, and this is one of the most useful pasta lessons. With the mound-and-well method, don’t force every last gram into the dough. The flour measurement sets the ratio; the dough tells you when you have used enough. If it already feels firm and cohesive, adding the rest can make it too dry.

How long should you knead pasta dough?

Usually about 5–10 minutes by hand. GialloZafferano kneads its tonnarelli dough for about 10 minutes before resting it for at least 30, and Great Italian Chefs suggests 5–10 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic. Don’t fix on the exact number of minutes; watch the dough change.

What pasta dough looks like before kneading

At first it can look crumbly, rough, uneven, slightly dry and disappointingly unlike pasta. That is normal. One of the commonest beginner mistakes is adding water in the first minute because the dough looks too dry. Give it time.

What properly kneaded pasta dough feels like

After kneading, the dough should be smooth, firm, elastic and even all through. It should not coat your hands, and it should not crumble when you squeeze it. Think of firm modelling clay, not soft bread dough; BBC Good Food uses a similar comparison. Pasta-maker Mateo Zielonka notes that a dough that feels stiff at first becomes more elastic as you work it and rest it.

For a quick test, press your thumb gently into the dough. A well-kneaded dough slowly springs back; an underworked one keeps a dead dent.

How to knead pasta dough properly

Push the dough away from you with the heel of your hand, fold or roll it back, turn it slightly and repeat. Unlike some breads, you are not trying to trap air. You are building a strong, even gluten structure that can stand being rolled very thin. Keep going until the surface turns from rough to smooth.

Why does pasta dough need to rest?

Kneading develops gluten, and straight after kneading those strands are tight. Roll the dough at once and it often springs back, shrinks, resists thinning and feels rubbery. Resting relaxes the gluten and lets the moisture spread evenly through the flour, which means smoother rolling. BBC Good Food recommends a 30-minute rest for exactly that reason: thinner, more even sheets.

How long should pasta dough rest?

For most home pasta, 30 minutes is the minimum, and many recipes use 30–60 minutes. Great Italian Chefs rests its dough for an hour; GialloZafferano’s tonnarelli rest for at least 30 minutes.

Do you rest pasta dough in the fridge?

Either works, depending on the recipe and how soon you will use it. For a short rest before rolling, most home recipes keep the dough well wrapped at room temperature; refrigerate it if you are storing it longer. What matters most is that the surface can’t dry out, so wrap it tightly or seal it in a container.

How do you know if pasta dough is too dry?

Signs include:

• deep cracks
• crumbling edges
• a ball that won’t come smooth
• splitting while you roll

The usual causes are small eggs, a particularly absorbent flour, too much flour worked in at the start, or a very dry kitchen. Before adding water, knead a little longer: dough that looks dry often just hasn’t hydrated yet. If it still won’t come together, add moisture very gradually. Wet your fingertips or hands lightly and keep kneading, as the Waitrose fresh-pasta method suggests, or follow BBC Good Food’s advice of about a teaspoon of water at a time, working each addition in fully before you decide whether you need more. A tiny amount of water changes the dough quickly, and the gap between “dry” and “sticky” is surprisingly small.

How do you fix pasta dough that is too wet?

If the dough sticks heavily to your hands, the worktop or the rollers, it needs a little more flour. Dust the surface lightly and knead again, adding flour gradually, not by the handful; burying the dough in flour turns a slightly sticky dough into a tough, brittle one. BBC Good Food also recommends adding small amounts of flour until the dough stops sticking. A correctly mixed dough ends up smooth but not tacky.

What if the dough looks cracked after resting?

A few light surface marks aren’t a disaster. Deep cracking means the dough is too dry or wasn’t covered well enough. Knead it briefly with slightly damp hands, wrap it again and give it another short rest.

Why does my pasta dough keep springing back?

Usually because the gluten hasn’t relaxed enough. Stop fighting it: wrap the dough and give it another 10–20 minutes, then try again. That works far better than forcing it through narrower and narrower machine settings.

Why does pasta dough tear in the machine?

The dough is too wet

It sticks to the rollers and tears.

The dough is too dry

It cracks.

You skipped settings

Going straight from thick to very thin puts too much stress on the sheet.

The dough wasn’t kneaded enough

The gluten network isn’t strong enough to hold together.

It didn’t rest

The dough is still too tight.

Most of these are fixed the same way: go back to a thicker setting, fold the sheet and pass it through again, then thin it one setting at a time.

Rolling, thickness and keeping dough covered

Rolling is the hands-on half of pasta-making, so it lives in our fresh pasta recipe: smoothing and folding the sheet on the widest machine setting, why you fold, rolling by hand with a pin, how thin each shape should be, why spare pieces stay wrapped, and why fine semolina is the best dusting before cutting.

Which pasta shapes use egg dough?

Egg dough works especially well for:

• tagliatelle
• fettuccine
• pappardelle
• lasagne
• ravioli
• tortellini
• cappelletti
• agnolotti

All of these need thin sheets that stay strong enough to cut, fold or fill.

Which pasta shapes use semolina dough?

Semolina-and-water dough is common for hand-shaped pasta such as:

• orecchiette
• cavatelli
• trofie
• lorighittas
• some forms of fusilli

The traditions change a great deal from region to region, which is one of the most interesting parts of Italian pasta.

Can you mix 00 flour and semolina?

Yes. Some cooks prefer a blend because it combines the smoothness of 00 with the firmness of durum wheat. GialloZafferano’s tonnarelli use 400g Tipo 00 plus 100g semolina, and several ravioli recipes blend the two flours in a similar way. A 50/50 blend is also common in home cooking; expect it to feel different from pure 00.

Do pasta dough ratios change for ravioli?

They can. Filled pasta needs sheets that are thin, strong and flexible, and that seal without tearing, so cooks sometimes adjust the flour blend or add yolks. There is no single required ravioli dough, though, and for a beginner the standard whole-egg dough works perfectly well. Technique matters more than a specialised formula on your first attempt.

Can you make pasta dough in a food processor?

Yes. Put the flour in the processor, add most of the egg and pulse until the mixture forms coarse crumbs that hold together when you squeeze them. Then bring it together by hand and knead briefly. It is less romantic than a flour well on a wooden board, but very practical, and the pasta doesn’t care.

Can you make pasta dough in a stand mixer?

Yes. Use the dough hook on low speed, but check your mixer can cope: pasta dough is much firmer than most bread doughs. Finish the dough briefly by hand anyway, because touching it tells you far more about its hydration than watching the hook.

Making dough ahead, freezing and portions

Egg dough is perishable, so wrap it very well and refrigerate it if you make it ahead, ideally the same day or the day before. How to store, freeze and portion the dough and the finished pasta is covered in our fresh pasta recipe, along with how much to make per person when pasta is the main course or the primo.

What makes great pasta dough?

It needs no expensive equipment, secret ingredient or complicated recipe. The factors that matter most are:

1. the right flour
2. balanced hydration
3. enough kneading
4. proper resting
5. gradual rolling
6. learning what the dough should feel like

That is why two people can use identical ingredients and make noticeably different pasta. The technique is in the hands.

What to ask the instructor at a Naples pasta class

A written recipe can tell you “400g flour + 4 eggs”, but it can’t show you the small difference between slightly too dry and perfectly firm. A class can, and you’ll get more from one if you go in with questions. Ask your instructor:

• How do I know when the dough has enough moisture?
• How hard should I be kneading, and when has the gluten developed?
• How long does this dough really need to rest?
• How much flour should I use on the board while rolling?
• How thin should each shape be?
• How do I seal filled pasta so it doesn’t burst?
• Which sauce suits this shape, and why?

Ask, too, which dough you are making and why. Naples isn’t the home of Emilia-Romagna’s classic egg pasta. Campanian cooking belongs to the southern Italian world where durum wheat and dried pasta matter enormously, with fresh handmade pasta alongside them. A good teacher here can take you past the standard “flour + eggs = Italian pasta” formula and explain how southern doughs and shapes differ from northern ones.

Read the class description before you book, because “pasta-making class” can mean:

• rolling egg pasta, as in the Naples: Pasta Making Class with Starter and Drink, where you make fettuccine and ravioli (4.9/5 from more than 1,300 reviews)
• shaping semolina pasta
• making ravioli
• combining pasta with tiramisu, as in the Naples: Pasta and Tiramisu Cooking Class with Local Chef (4.9/5 from about 200 reviews), or swapping pasta for pizza and tiramisu in the Naples: Neapolitan Pizza and Tiramisu Cooking Class (4.9/5, 1,700+ reviews)
• assembling a dish from dough made before you arrive

Choose a class where you make the dough yourself; that is where you learn to judge it.

Pasta dough troubleshooting table

Pasta dough FAQs

What is the best pasta dough ratio?

A reliable beginner ratio is 100g Tipo 00 flour to 1 large egg. It scales easily and works for most fresh egg pasta.

Is 00 flour better than plain flour for pasta?

It is usually easier to work with for fresh egg pasta, because it is finely milled and gives a smooth dough. Plain flour still works if you can’t find 00.

Is semolina better than 00 flour?

Neither is better across the board. Use 00 flour for smooth egg pasta and fine durum semolina for many southern flour-and-water pasta traditions. Different pasta needs different dough.

How long should pasta dough rest?

At least 30 minutes; some recipes rest it for an hour. Resting relaxes the gluten and makes the dough easier to roll.

How long should you knead pasta dough?

Usually about 5–10 minutes by hand, or until the dough is smooth and elastic.

Why is my pasta dough so hard?

Fresh pasta dough should be noticeably firmer than bread dough. If it is smooth and you can knead it without it crumbling, firmness isn’t a problem, and resting usually makes it easier to roll.

Why is my pasta dough sticky?

It probably has slightly too much moisture. Dust with a little flour and keep kneading until it is smooth and no longer clings to your hands.

Does pasta dough need olive oil?

No. Traditional pasta dough can be as simple as flour and eggs, or semolina and water.

Can I make pasta without eggs?

Yes. Semolina-and-water pasta is a major Italian tradition, especially in southern Italy.

The two doughs to remember

If you remember one pasta dough formula, make it 100g Tipo 00 flour and one large egg per person. Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, rest it for at least 30 minutes, roll it thinner a step at a time, and adjust by texture instead of treating the numbers as fixed. Then learn the second great Italian formula: fine durum semolina and water. Between them, those two doughs open up an enormous range of Italian pasta.

If you’re taking a cooking class in Naples, ask which of the two you’ll be making. The answer tells you a lot about the class you are booking.

Related reading

• Fresh Pasta Recipe: How to Make Pasta From Scratch
• Cooking classes in Naples: pizza, pasta, tiramisu and more
• Naples cooking class for beginners
• What to expect at a Naples cooking class