Eggless Pasta Dough

fettucini to be dried

As requested, I finally got around to making homemade ravioli. Making homemade pasta is always a but of a procedure; it's a lot more work than cooking a box of dried pasta. Ravioli especially involves a filling and more rolling and cutting. But homemade pasta in the end is always worth it.Sadly I do not have my own, so I had to borrow a pasta roller and ravioli cutters - thanks again!! I made a big batch of eggless pasta dough and ended up making 60 ricotta-filled ravioli, 42 lobster-filled ravioli, and with the extra dough I made some fettucini and spaghetti to have on hand.

spaghetti to be dried

Easy Homemade Eggless Pasta Dough
4 cups all-purpose (plain) flour
1/2 cup olive oil
approx. 3/4 cup water (room temperature or warm water is preferred over cold)
salt, optional (usually salt is just added to the water when boiling pasta, but feel free to add some to the dough if preferred)

Place the flour in a large bowl and make a well in the center. Pour the oil and water into the well, then bring the mixture together with your hands, kneading it together until it forms a nearly smooth ball. More water or flour may be required, but don't add more until the dough had been kneaded at least five minutes, as pasta dough usually requires a bit of muscle.

Wrap the dough ball well, and set aside on the counter to rest for about an hour before rolling. Roll out, cook, and dry as needed! This makes a big batch, so some dough can be saved in the fridge or freezer for rolling out later, or simply cut out a lot of pasta and freeze it or dry it.