How to make pasta with a stand mixer

Stage one: mixing and kneading the dough

Fresh egg pasta is a simple dough — flour and eggs, sometimes with a little olive oil, salt or water — but the ratio and the feel matter more than any exact recipe. Different cooks use different flours (a fine "00" flour, all-purpose, or a mix with semolina for bite) and different egg counts, so follow a recipe you trust rather than a number I invent here. What's universal is the technique in the bowl, and that's what a stand mixer makes easy.

Bringing it together with the flat beater

Start with the flat beater, not the dough hook. Put your flour in the bowl, add the eggs (and any oil or salt), and run the mixer on a low speed to bring the shaggy mixture together into rough crumbs and then a rough mass. The flat beater is better than the hook at this first stage because it cuts the eggs into the flour evenly rather than just pushing a dry pile around. This is the moment to judge hydration: fresh pasta dough should be firm and only slightly tacky, not sticky and not crumbly-dry. If it won't come together and stays floury, add water a teaspoon at a time; if it's sticky, dust in a little more flour. Because it's a stiff dough, expect it to look drier and rougher than bread dough at this stage — that's correct.

Developing it with the dough hook

Once the dough has come together into a mass, switch to the dough hookto knead and develop the gluten. Knead on a low speed — the same low setting you'd use for bread, around speed 2 on a KitchenAid — and let it work for several minutes until the dough turns smooth, firm and elastic, and pulls away from the sides to gather around the hook. Because pasta dough is stiff, keep the batch sensible; a big, dry dough is exactly the kind of load that strains a mid-pack motor, so split it if your recipe makes a lot. The general technique here is the same one that governs bread, so if you want the mechanics of speed and timing in more depth, our guide to using the dough hook and the broader how to knead dough in a stand mixerboth apply directly. You're looking for a dough that's smooth and springs back when pressed.

Resting the dough

This step is not optional: rest the kneaded dough, wrapped tightly in plastic or under an inverted bowl so it doesn't dry out, for at least half an hour at room temperature. The rest lets the gluten relax and the flour fully hydrate, which is what makes the dough roll out thin and smooth instead of springing back and tearing. Skip it and you'll fight the dough at the roller; give it the rest and stage two becomes easy. While it rests, clear and lightly flour your work surface and get the pasta-roller attachment ready.

Stage two: rolling and cutting with the pasta attachment

With a rested dough and the roller attachment fitted to the front hub, the second stage is where fresh pasta actually takes shape. The roller attachment has a dial that sets the gap between its rollers, from a wide setting for the first pass down to progressively thinner settings, and most setups pair a roller for sheets with separate cutters for noodles like fettuccine or spaghetti. Fit the attachment to the hub, set a low mixer speed, and keep a little flour close by.

Working down the thickness settings

The key to good sheets is patience with the settings. Cut the rested dough into pieces you can manage, keep the rest covered so they don't dry out, and flatten one piece by hand. Start on the widest roller settingand feed the dough through. Fold that first sheet in thirds, turn it, and run it through the widest setting a few more times — this "laminating" step at the start smooths the sheet and builds its structure. Then stop folding and simply work down one setting at a time, running the sheet through each number once or twice before clicking to the next thinner setting. Don't skip settings to rush it; jumping from thick to thin tears the sheet and strains the rollers. How thin you go depends on what you're making — a middle setting for hearty tagliatelle, thinner for delicate sheets or filled pasta. The sheet will lengthen as it thins, so support it with your free hand as it comes out.

Flouring as you go

Fresh dough is tacky, and tacky sheets stick to the rollers and to themselves, so flour lightly and often. Dust each sheet with a little flour before a pass if it feels sticky, and dust the cut noodles so they don't clump into a solid mass. Use a light hand though — too much loose flour makes a mess and can leave the pasta gummy when cooked. A semolina or fine flour for dusting works well because it's less likely to be absorbed. Keep any sheets and dough you aren't working with covered, because pasta dough dries at the edges quickly and dry edges crack when they hit the cutter.

Cutting into shapes

Once a sheet is at the thickness you want, swap to the cutter attachmentfor noodles — a fettuccine or spaghetti cutter runs the sheet through a set of blades and drops out even strands. Feed the floured sheet through steadily and catch the noodles as they come. For shapes the cutter doesn't make — pappardelle, lasagna sheets, ravioli — cut the rolled sheet by hand or fill and fold it. Toss cut noodles with a little more flour and gather them into loose nests so they don't stick together while you finish the rest.

Drying and cooking

Cut pasta can be cooked right away or dried briefly first. To hold it for a short while, lay the nests or strands on a floured tray or hang longer noodles over a rack or the back of a chair so air circulates and they don't stick. Fresh pasta cooks far fasterthan dried — often just a couple of minutes in well-salted boiling water — so watch it closely and taste early. If you want to keep it longer, fully dried nests store for a while, or you can freeze them; add a little to the cooking time from frozen. The attachment did the hard part; the cooking is quick.

A few things that make it go smoothly

Three habits separate an easy pasta session from a frustrating one. First, don't skimp the rest — it's the single biggest thing that makes the dough roll out cleanly. Second, work down the roller settings one at a time and resist the urge to rush, because torn sheets waste dough and time. Third, keep everything you're not actively rolling covered, since dry edges are the usual cause of cracking and ragged noodles. The pasta-roller and cutter are part of the wider KitchenAid front-hub ecosystem, so if you're weighing which accessories to add, our overview of stand mixer attachments puts the roller in context alongside the grinder, slicer and the rest. With a good dough and a little patience at the roller, a stand mixer makes fresh pasta genuinely quick.