What Chefs Know About From-Scratch Pasta That Home Cooks Often Miss

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There may be no single act in the kitchen that is quite as romanticized as making pasta from scratch. But results in home kitchens don't always live up to those romantic dreams — and the issue often comes down to the ingredients. While it might appear as if folks are using any old flour and whatever eggs they happen to have on hand, a savvy chef knows that when making fresh pasta, using the finest ingredients is of paramount importance.

To shed light on the best ingredients for making restaurant-worthy pasta at home, Tasting Table reached out to Sarah Grueneberg, Chef and Owner of Chicago's Monteverde restaurant and author of "Listen to Your Vegetables." Her explanation as to why quality ingredients are key for homemade pasta was simple: "Pasta is made with so few ingredients that you want to make sure you're using the best that you can access." 

Like much of Italian cuisine, making really good fresh pasta is about the simple combination of a few high-quality ingredients, with the rest coming down to balance and technique. As for which ingredients you actually need to make that beautiful pasta, Grueneberg said that the best move is to "buy 00 flour and keep it in the freezer so it stays fresh and look for eggs with beautiful rich yolks."

00 flour is a little bit harder to hunt down, but it's worth the extra effort of you want to make restaurant-worthy pasta from scratch. The "00" label on this type of flour is indicative of how it is ground, with 00 being the finest end of the European scale. The fine grind allows the flour to hydrate with less moisture, creating a pasta that is smooth and tender, with just the right amount of bite. 00 flour is also the best flour to use for pizza dough, so that bag in the freezer will be useful for more than just tagliatelle.

Choosing the best eggs for your pasta can be a challenge. Even from a known brand, you still sometimes end up cracking an egg to reveal a pale, insipid center. But Tasting Table does have some advice to help you track down the best pasta ingredients on the first try. For starters, you can have a look at our taste tester's ranking of egg brands – the higher-ranked brands are much more likely to deliver the yolks. Beyond that, opt for pasture-raised eggs rather than cage-free, as these hens live a healthier life, leading to richer and more flavorful eggs.

In the end, there isn't all that much more to homemade pasta. Get yourself the right flour and eggs, and avoid the most common fresh pasta mistakes, and you'll be batching out fettuccine and farfalle in a flash.