The perfect home extruded pasta dough is simple to make and only takes 2 ingredients, water and flour! For me, I prefer using a semolina dough when I am extruding pasta. This will give you a flavor closer to dried pasta. You can use an egg dough for extruded pasta but it will have a different texture. There are very few recipes out there for a semolina dough for home extruders, such as the Kitchenaid. I find many are too wet or contain eggs.
The most important aspect of getting this dough right is the hydration percentage. This will vary based on your flour and machine. I use a Kitchenaid pasta extruder with Antimo Caputo Semola flour. (Neither are sponsors, it is just my preference). I find a 40% hydration works best with these two. Note that if the dough is too dry it could damage the pasta die or machine. If the dough is too wet, the shapes will be deformed and too soft. When extruding you know the dough is perfect when you can cut it off with a plastic bench scraper.
This recipe is for the perfect base of any extruded dough. You can add other ingredients to the liquid portion, such as pumpkin, tomato, chili powder, etc.
For shaped pasta, like fusilli, you may need to reduce the hydration to 35%.
Extruded Pasta Dough
Description
Freshly extruded semolina pasta dough at home.
Ingredients
Instructions
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Make the dough
In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment add the flour. Turn the machine on low and slowly drizzle in the water. Continue mixing on low for 5 minutes to allow the water to fully absorb.
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Check consistency
The dough should resemble wet sand. When folded into a ball it should hold its shape but loosen back into a sand consistency when crumbled. If the dough is too dry add a splash of water, if too wet add a touch more flour.
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Extrude the dough
This step will depend on your machine. For a Kitchenaid, they recommend forming the dough into balls and feeding through the hopper. The first few inches will be deformed. This can be fed back into the hopper. As the machine heats up it will start to extrude a smoother dough.
Cut the dough into desired length and let dry for at least 15 minutes.
Fresh pasta will cook in around 2 minutes if fresh. If fully dried it will take a bit longer and depend how dry the pasta is.
Note
For pasta inspiration check out our recipes here!
I just made this dough with my Kitchenaid extruder, and it turned out great! I even substituted half the flour for AP (50%semolina 50%All Purpose.) thanks for posting this!
Glad to hear you enjoyed it, happy pasta making!
Do you let the dough rest before extruding?
Great question! Although it is not necessary to let extruded pasta dough rest, you could cover and let rest for upto 30 minutes.
Happy pasta making!
Thanks!
Just wanted to say thanks for this recipe! So many recipes called for egg and from my past experience extruding pasta in a restaurant, I knew it wasn’t what I wanted. 40% was a great starting point for me, and I ended up around 38% hydration which could be attributed to any number of conditions like humidity.
In short, thanks!!
Thank you for the kind words, I’m glad you enjoyed the recipe! I agree, almost all recipes I found called for eggs which isn’t right for extruded.
Happy Pasta Making!
Thanks so much for the recipe. I have tried so many others and they never work properly for fusilli. This is the only one that actually works! I am stoked! I did end up around 38% hydration.
I am glad you found the recipe helpful! Thank you for the details on the hydration, I will add it to the recipe to help others as well!
Happy Pasta Making!
It works very well!! Finally, I have found the proper proportions! It is dry at home (32%), so the 40% water ratio worked like a charm. I tested with rigatoni. The first ones were quite curved, but once the extruder head was warm (due to friction, I guess), they started coming out straight. I did 400 grams of durum; it gave me two large baking sheets I put in the oven at a “dehydration” setting. Question: shouldn’t we add some salt to the recipe?
Amazing, I am glad the recipe worked and you enjoyed it! You are exactly correct, even with professional machines they need to heat up to start extruding nice pasta. What I do is put the first few extruded pieces back into the hopper so not to waste it. Great question on the addition of salt! Traditionally salt is not added to pasta dough, especially extruded. Salt makes pasta elastic (and is the trick to making su filindeu that I will be posting soon) and would impact the extrusion.
Happy Pasta Making!
I must add that switching from an Artisan to a Pro makes a huge difference with the extruder.
Thanks, I am.doing this for the first time. Your recipe sounded and proved perfect. I extruded rigatoni for drying, and of course, eating. Looks perfect.. boiking water now…
Question, how to dry for future use? Some sites say 12 to 24 hours, some tell you to refrigerate. What can you advise me about this?
Great question! I have left them to dry up to 24 hours on the counter with success. However, depending on the humidity and temperature they could split in half. The safest way to store them is in the freezer. If frozen, just add directly to the boiling water without thawing. I find the refrigerator cam sometimes lead to an off taste or flavor.
Glad you enjoyed the recipe and happy pasta making!
Thank you!!! Great website and I appreciate your reply. Almost put them in the fridge. Whew.
I just read the newest comments and they are almost spot on my question. Made Rigatoni I dehydrated in the oven for four hours (we have a dehydration function). First two meals were perfect. I cooked some tonight, two weeks later, and almost all of them split after a few minutes in the water! I had kept them in a plastic bag. So, dehydration time was too short? Plastic bags are not a good idea? Thanks
I would suggest freezing in plastic bags. Commercial style dried pasta is a rather complex science and has exact temperature and relative humidity cycles. I find that home dehydration does not keep pasta well past a couple days and will cause splitting.
Thank you Marc. Great learning here. So, do you freeze right away or do some dehydration first?
What I do is let them dry for an hour or up to overnight then freeze. This will preserve the texture and prevent cracking.
I’ve had my kitchenaid attachment for probably 10+ years and only used it the one time (with the included recipe, ergo disaster lol). Tried tonight with this recipe (prob closer to 38% hydration because it’s wet and rainy out) and it was perfection! I rested the dough for about 30 mins. Also, my oven has a dehydration mode so I used that for 30 mins to dry the pasta while I was prepping the sauce.
I am thrilled to hear you enjoyed the recipe and are using your extruder again! No eggs and the proper hydration make the world of difference!
Happy Pasta Making!
I am about to give up on extruded pasta. I used Semolina with 40% and all it did was gum up in the Kitchen Aid extruder. I made another batch with 35-38% and it would not extrude. Seemed too dry but still gummed up the extruder. I am using Caputo semolina. Did not have this problem with Bob’s Red Mill. Maybe I need to switch back, but it is expensive.
Thoughts?
Hi John,
Sorry to hear your pasta is not turning out! What was the consistency of the dough like before it was extruded? Was it like a sandy texture or more dough like? I assume you are using a KitchenAid, it has to warm up and can take 5 minutes or so to start extruding smoothly. Which pasta die did you use?
Also happy to help troubleshoot your dough directly if you want to reach out to contact@marceats.com and provide some pictures.
Happy Pasta Making,
Marc