How to Use a Pasta Maker and Drying Rack for Fresh Pasta

We’re all familiar with that weeknight staple: boxed pasta. But if you’ve ever been to an authentic Italian restaurant, you’ve likely indulged in the luxury of freshly made. Boxed pasta is typically made of a dry semolina dough — a coarse wheat flour — and water that is then compressed and extruded through dies to make different shapes like the classic spaghetti, penne, and rigatoni. 

Most homemade fresh pasta, on the other hand, is made with a dough of egg and flour and uses a pasta machine to roll the dough into thin sheets called sfoglia. These sheets can be left as-is to make lasagna, cut into ribbons to make shapes like fettuccine, left in big pieces to make stuffed pasta, or cut into shapes for ravioli, tortellini, and more. Fresh pasta has a much more delicate texture and more flavor than dried pasta.

Making homemade egg dough pasta is actually a lot easier than it looks, and the result is always a crowd-pleaser — regardless if it’s the main dish of your next dinner party or just making date night extra special.

How Do Pasta Makers Work?

A pasta maker is a machine that takes a ball of pasta dough and rolls it flat into thin sheets. The machine comprises two metal tube-shaped rollers that sit on top of each other but do not touch each other. The dough is passed between them, and the small distance between the roller squishes the dough into a uniform thickness. 

All pasta machines have settings, usually from 1 to up to 10, which control the distance between the rollers. The 1 setting is the widest. You start there, slowly decreasing the space between the rollers as you work your way up the number ending at 7 to 10, which are the thinnest. 

Tabletop or manual varieties use a hand crank to roll the rollers and press the dough. Some models are electric and simply require a press of a button, while others attach to stand mixers and are controlled by the toggle on the mixer.

Equipment You’ll Need to Get Started

Marcato Atlas 150 Classic Stainless Steel Pasta Machine

$90 at Amazon $120 at Target $120 at Bloomingdales

When you ask pasta pros what kind of manual pasta maker they have at home, they’ll usually answer the Marcato Atlas 150 Pasta Machine. Oftentimes, that’s what their mother or grandmother used. Marcato has been making pasta machines since 1930, and in that time, they built a machine that blew us away in testing. 

Not only is it easy to assemble and take apart to clean, but the pieces are durable yet lightweight and easy to use. It effortlessly rolled out our dough without any jamming or fraying. It’s simple and straightforward, perfect for a beginner while still delivering a superior performance that seasoned pasta makers will appreciate.

Sänger Wooden Pasta Dryer

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When it comes to pasta drying racks, simple is best. That’s why we love the Sänger Wooden Pasta Dryer. It’s sturdy and uncomplicated. At about 20 inches, it's tall but keeps its balance beautifully, so you can really load up all 16 of its removable arms. The unfinished wood surface wicks excess moisture to help the drying process, and the height combined with the spiral shapes facilitates maximum air circulation.

How to Make Pasta Using a Pasta Maker

Once you have your dough mixed, begin kneading, taking special care to use the palms of your hands to push and stretch the dough. This step develops the gluten that gives fresh pasta its texture. Knead for 8-10 minutes and shape into a ball. 

Wrap the ball with plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes, which allows the dough to hydrate. Then, cut the pasta dough into a few manageable pieces. Keeping the other pieces covered, flatten one piece with your hands or a rolling pin to roughly 1/4 of an inch. Start on the 1 setting and roll your pasta through. Tri-fold the dough to fit the width of the pasta maker and run through the 1 setting again. Adjust the width to 2 and repeat the rolling and folding.

Once you move onto the 3 setting, you no longer need to fold in between rolls. Repeat the rolling process to the thinner settings, depending on how thin you’d like your pasta, usually 6-8 is best for most applications. 

Danielle Glantz, owner and pasta maker of Pastaio Via Corta in Gloucester, Massachusetts, suggests drying the sheets before cutting: “Drying is more crucial so that the pasta doesn’t end up sticking all together when you cut it,” she says. However, you don’t need to dry the sheets first; you can also dry the pasta after cutting.

Use the cutting attachment for your pasta maker if you have one, or use a sharp knife to cut the large sheets into manageable sheets, about 8-12 inches long, depending on your preference. Then, slice the sheets into noodles of any width. Place the noodles on the drying rack so they do not overlap; this can also be done with the whole sheets if you choose to dry first before cutting. 

For home use, pasta doesn’t need to be dried completely, but a brief rest with some circulating air can improve the exterior texture. A drier exterior also lets sauce cling more effectively and prevents the pasta from getting mushy or gummy when cooking. A short rest of at least 30 minutes — but no more than two hours — is ideal. Any longer, and the pasta can dry out too much or crack. 

When ready to cook, boil your pasta in salted water for 1 to 3 minutes, keeping a careful eye. Fresh pasta will cook significantly quicker than dried.

Frequently Asked Questions

What flour do you use in a pasta maker?

You may have heard about 00 or “double zero” flour for making pasta. “The majority of pastas made with a pasta roller are egg-based pasta,” says Meryl Feinstein, founder of the popular Instagram account and website, Pasta Social Club. “Those dough recipes generally consist of finely milled, super-soft '00' flour and eggs (you can swap the 00 for all-purpose flour, too).” The soft 00 flour gives a light, tender, and delicate texture to the finished pasta. 

However, as Feinstein mentions, all-purpose flour is totally fine for making pasta. The texture will be slightly less buttery than the fresh stuff you’ll get at restaurants known for pasta, but it will still be very delicious. Semolina flour is sometimes used in doughs or for dusting extruded pasta, but Feinstein warns against this with a home pasta maker: “If your dough is sticky when rolling it through the machine, dust it with 00 or all-purpose flour rather than coarse semolina.”

Are pasta makers worth it?

A pasta machine significantly streamlines the process of rolling out sheets of fresh egg dough, not to mention making it much easier. Rolling out dough manually can be a workout. If you think you’ll make pasta often and want to learn more about it, a pasta machine can be a good investment in a delicious hobby. 

“A pasta machine makes the experience far easier and more enjoyable and gives you the flexibility to make pretty much anything you want,” says Feinstein. However, a pasta machine isn’t necessary to make pasta at home, so you can experiment with hand-rolling egg dough or other shapes and doughs that don’t require tools to start out and see if you like it.

Do I need a pasta maker to make homemade pasta?

You do not need a pasta maker to make homemade pasta. However, some shapes are much easier to make with a machine. Long, thin shapes like pappardelle and fettuccine can be difficult to roll thin enough with a rolling pin alone, especially if you don’t have much experience. If you don’t have a pasta maker but want to try making homemade pasta, consider making hand-formed shapes using semolina dough. Orecchiette, cavatelli, pici, and more can be made with almost no equipment at all and don’t even require eggs. “There are many, many pasta shapes you can make without one — and you can certainly roll pasta dough with a rolling pin — but if you want to try your hand at a wide range of shapes, I definitely recommend a pasta machine,” says Feinstein.

How do you dry pasta without a rack?

A pasta drying rack isn’t strictly essential to making pasta at home. If you don’t have a rack, Glantz suggests getting creative: “Wood surface, back of chair, hanger, tablecloth. Tablecloths are what my grandmother and great-grandmother used, and even the backs of chairs for long shapes. So again, if you are just at home making small amounts, no rack is totally necessary.” A drying rack lets air get to every surface of the pasta, so anything that helps air circulation will do.

Our Expertise

Nick DeSimone, a food writer and restaurant cook with nearly a decade of professional cooking experience, wrote this piece. Much of their time has been spent working at Italian restaurants and making fresh pasta every day. They also spoke to Meryl Feinstein, founder of the popular Instagram account and website, Pasta Social Club, as well as Danielle Glantz, owner and pasta maker of Pastaio Via Corta in Gloucester, Massachusetts, for their expertise.