How to Make Water-based Pasta (an in-depth guide)

How to Make Water-based Pasta (an in-depth guide)

00:00 Intro
00:24 When to use water-based dough and when to use egg-based dough
01:20 Semolina vs "00" flour
03:00 How to measure ingredients
03:35 Making the dough
07:56 Shaping orecchiette
11:16 Cooking orecchiette

Pasta Dough Recipe:

For 4 first course servings (3 main course)

300g semolina flour (ideally Italian semola)
175g water at 170F (77C)

Put semolina and water into the food processor or stand mixer with a paddle attachment (in the video I said a dough hook, but a paddle will work faster). Run the machine until a dough just comes together. Get it out onto a clean (unfloured) surface and knead for a total of 8 minutes (longer is fine). It will be sticky in the beginning and might require scraping off the counter, but should become completely smooth and not sticky very quickly. If after 1 minute of kneading the dough is still sticking, knead in flour 1 Tbsp at a time. Even if the dough feels great after 2 min, make sure you still knead for 8. Sprinkle the dough with flour, wrap in plastic, and rest at room temp at least 30 min and up to 5 hours.

Shape the dough as shown in the video. If serving the same day, cover with a towel and let sit until ready to cook. Or put in the freezer for 2 hours on a sheet until hard and then collect into a freezer bag.

Cook in generously salted boiling water. I use 65g salt for 6.5 quarts (6 L) water. After they float, they should take about 2 min, but make sure to taste frequently.

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[helenrennie]

After posting this video, I learned an important difference between "semolina" and "semola" thanks to Adam Churvis. Adam, you get the comment-of-the-month award :) What I am actually using in the video is Italian "semola" flour. I thought it's called "semolina" in English, but I was wrong. Both semola and semolina are made from durum wheat. But American produced semolina is coarser than Italian semola. I tested this recipe both with Bob's Red Mill semolina and Caputo Semola and got good results with both, though they were a little better with Italian semola. But I haven't tested this dough on a pasta extruder since I don't have one. I only make hand shapes like orecchiette, trofie, and cavatelli. It's possible that for an extruder, you'd see a bigger difference. If possible, get Italian Semola di grano duro, rimacinana. That's the flour I use. It's extremely confusing because many Italian semola flours are sold as "semolina" in the US.

[jacobsmith]

The fact that binging with babish is more popular than this is an outrage. This is the secret gem of YouTube cooking. Helan consistently produces videos that are more thorough and informative than any single source, whether in print or video format than I've ever seen all in one place and always much I've never seen, and I research cooking technique for fun. Spread this channel far and wide, for it is the gospel of the culinary truth.

[davidgoeller]

Very informative as always. The “eating knife” you refer to has always been called a butter knife in my family

[maryaliceholmes]

Dear Helen, I was one of your students many years ago. Your Knife Skills class changed my life! And the lives of anyone who has seen me cook in my own kitchen. Just like with this video about water based pasta, your clear directions and explanations make it so easy for your students to replicate and then pass on the information to friends, children, and just this past weekend, nieces! Thank you so much for all your instructions. And congratulations on getting 1.4M views on your egg-based pasta video. I hope I can cook in your kitchen again some day! MaryAlice

[hstsyli]

1:09 made this mistake and it ended up tasting tlike rubber. Almost gave up making handmade pasta. Most useful tip I have ever heard. Thanks a lot

[triciapike]

Absolutely one of the finest teachers of all things culinary. I went to a pasta class taught by a local chef, and quickly came home to google the "details" he did not mention. I found Helen's video and my family and I watched it intently before embarking on our first pasta adventure. Without Helen, we would have been scrambling. Can't wait to attend a live class. in the future. Your detailed way of presenting as a scientist while imparting the passion of cooking is what makes me tick! THANK YOU, Helen!

[MsSilentH]

I love how you lay out information. You pack a lot of info but it just flows. All that you said felt like it should have been a 45 minute video! I made fresh pasta twice and could tell where I made my mistakes already, so thank you!

[chrislashley]

Helen has never met me, and yet I am 100% certain she believes in me as a cook. I enjoy your videos so much, Helen. I have learned a ton.

[LostQuays-wgxn]

I've only made egg pasta but know nothing about water pasta. I can say that Helen's video is the best out there. ❤ Thank you Helen

[danepinar]

My gosh! I just tried making your egg-based pasta dough to make my own ravioli and I WILL NEVER buy store bought pasta again!!! Thank you thank you. Love from the Philippines 🤗🤗🤗

[Whatwhat]

I had no idea about any of these things - wow! Thanks Helen, I can’t wait to try out making some egg-free pasta

[emberchord]

Flour Classifications vary widely from country to country, I've written a bit of text for people from Germany/Austria who may find this video:

Falls jemand aus Deutschland/Österreich dieses Video ließt, die korrekte Übersetzung für Semolina Flour ist "Hartweizengrieß". In Österreich gibt es "Goldgrieß", was auch Hartweißengrieß ist aber es ist sehr, sehr grob. Man kann dennoch damit Pasta machen. Worauf man beim Kaufen achten muss ist "Durum-Weizen". Der Gluten-Gehalt ist höher, was die Pasta fester macht. Wenn kein feines Pastamehl verwendet wurde, kann dennoch der grobe Grieß verwendet werden, er muss nur so lange geknetet werden, bis das ganze auch wirklich durchgängig weich ist und keine Grießkörner mehr gefunden werden können.

[etherdog]

Dear Helen, great tips on the pasta making, especially using hot water. A note about the salinity of the water (and seasoning in general) that might be helpful: foods generally need about 1% of salt by weight for good seasoning. Your example of 65 grams of salt for 6 litres of water is just slightly more than that, but as you explained, the pasta is cooked for such a short time that a little boost is good. The average salinity of sea water is about 3.7% and if you were to salt your pasta water to this extent it would produce an inedible product. I love your work and think it is time to retire the misleading phrase "salt your water like the sea."

[astroxmisfit]

I made this for the first time, all by hand and I only used AP flour, and it turned out amazing!! At first I was really bad at making the shape but it got easier in no time. I tossed the pasta and finished cooking it in a creamy chicken sauce with peas. I will definitely make this pasta again!!

[nessuno]

Helen; Grazie Mille! For explaining the different flour and their proper uses. I have made egg pasta tagliatelle, and filled pastas for yrs., now I tried the small hand-shaped ones and couldn't do it, I followed another Youtubers video, with much frustration and no success, and they made their dough with an eggs + 00 flour...I don't know how they managed to make it appear successful! I have semolina flour, and will try your method, which I'm pretty sure will work.

[Passionforfoodrecipes]

Those are some *hot* tips Helen!

I really love homemade noodles, the *pasta-bilites* are endless!

[amgrob]

Great recipe. I've struggled with water-based pasta, for awhile, using semolina/semola flour. After closely following the intructions of this video and others of Helen's, I was finally successful. Cheap, easy and wonderful recipe to try.

[bookmark]

Congratulations Helen, 200k subscribers !!
So proud of you :)

[geojames]

I had totally nailed my egg dough for ravioli and spaghetti and tonight I tried to make some hand shapes with it and they were like rubber bullets! So glad I found your videos and figured out that I had used the wrong dough for those shapes! This makes so much sense. Great video, thank you so much!

[marvinweigand]

Thank you for clearing up the common misconceptions of making pasta dough