Giada De Laurentiis' Essential Tip For Homemade Pasta

Celebrity chef Giada De Laurentiis is known for her all-encompassing Italian cooking. Her creative tomato recipes and restaurant offerings are just two points on a long, well-rounded culinary resume. De Laurentiis also has all kinds of cooking hacks, pasta suggestions, and Italy-worthy upgrades in her portfolio. For example, when making pasta, De Laurentiis reminds home chefs to add parmesan prior to incorporating sauce, which helps the sauce stick to the pasta, resulting in perfectly coated noodles.

De Laurentiis' recipes — and corresponding advice — are certain to inspire, and simplify, your next dinner. But, while De Laurentiis' fresh pasta calls for just five ingredients, including cake flour, all-purpose flour, egg yolks, salt, and olive oil, per Food Network, to master fresh pasta for yourself, you'll need to do more than visit your local store.

De Laurentiis' homemade pasta dough is all about technique. And once you've applied her recommendations, your fresh spaghetti — not to mention your arms — will be all the stronger.

Put some muscle in it

Forget arm day; Making fresh pasta is enough of a workout — one with the best kind of reward. "You really have to mix the dough and use your arms and abs to work it and get into the dough," De Laurentiis told Eating Well.

Indeed, a little bit of strength and energy may be the secret ingredient to a smooth pasta dough. According to De Laurentiis, properly kneading your dough is a crucial — but often overlooked — step in any homemade pasta expenditure and failing to do so can be detrimental to your pasta dough prior to its resting stage.

"You have to invest the time and muscle to get the dough smooth before you allow it to rest," De Laurentiis reiterated to Eating Well. And her fresh pasta recipe for Food Network calls for about five to eight minutes of kneading, which means you'll have to put in the time to get the result. 

While there's no shortcut in making a great pasta dough, spaghetti lovers can rest assured: The extra effort is well-worth a delicious plate of pasta.