Homemade Basil Pasta with Garlic Brown Butter Recipe
Impress with no stress! Once you make homemade pasta, you'll never want boxed pasta again. Layer fresh basil in the pasta and toss with garlic brown butter for a simple way to add fresh delicious flavors.
How to Make the Best Homemade Basil Pasta with Garlic Brown Butter
Making homemade pasta from scratch is easier than you might think, and the results are absolutely worth the effort. This homemade basil pasta with garlic brown butter takes simple ingredients and transforms them into an elegant dish that looks restaurant-quality but comes together in less than 2 hours.
The secret to this recipe is the technique of laminating the basil leaves between two sheets of pasta dough. Not only does this create stunning visual appeal when you cut and cook the pasta, but it also infuses each strand with subtle basil flavor. The fresh, herbal taste of the basil is the perfect complement to the rich, nutty garlic brown butter sauce—creating a dish that is greater than the sum of its parts.
Once you master the basic pasta dough and rolling technique, you’ll find yourself making fresh pasta regularly. This recipe serves 4 and pairs beautifully with a crisp white wine and a fresh green salad. The whole process becomes quite meditative once you get the hang of it, and there’s nothing quite like the satisfaction of serving pasta you made with your own two hands.
Homemade Basil Pasta with Garlic Brown Butter
Impress with no stress! Once you make homemade pasta, you'll never want boxed pasta again. Layer fresh basil in the pasta and toss with garlic brown butter for a simple way to add fresh delicious flavors.
Ingredients
Pasta Dough
Garlic Brown Butter Sauce
Instructions
Make the Dough
- On a flat surface, place 2½ cups flour in a mound. Create a well in the center of the dough for the eggs, about 5 inches wide.
- Add the eggs to the well and pierce each yolk with a fork. Start whisking the eggs with the fork, gradually incorporating flour from the sides of the well. Once the yolks are thickened, add more and more flour. If the well starts to crack while whisking in the eggs just push it back together. If the well breaks completely, just quickly add the flour into the eggs and start working the dough with your hands.
- Once a 'shaggy dough' starts to form, stop using the fork and start working the dough into a ball using your hands. Knead the dough for 5 minutes. Wrap with plastic wrap and let it rest for 30 minutes.
Roll the Dough
- Unwrap the dough and cut into 4 equal pieces. Keep any pasta you are not working with covered with a clean kitchen towel or plastic wrap to prevent the dough from drying out.
- Flatten one piece of the pasta dough into a disk that's thinner along the edge and slightly thicker in the center. Dust the roller with flour and feed the dough through on the widest setting.
- Fold the dough into thirds and repeat. Feeding the dough into the roller 2 to 3 times per setting, rotating which side of the dough you start with until the dough is 1/8 inch thick.
- Dust the pasta sheet with flour or semolina and cut into (2) 10 to 12-inch sheets.
Laminate the Pasta Sheets
- Spray or lightly brush one pasta sheet with water. Layer the whole basil leaves all over the pasta sheet, leaving space between each leaf.
- Layer with the remaining pasta sheet and press down slightly with your hands or a rolling pin to stick the two sheets together.
- Adjust the pasta rolling attachment to a medium setting and roll the basil laminated pasta sheet through, increasing the setting until all the air bubbles have been pressed out of the pasta and your desired thickness is achieved.
- If using for stuffed pastas, cover the basil pasta sheets with a towel until you finish the other 3 pieces of dough. Or cut the pasta into linguine, tagliatelle, etc. and drape the cut pasta over a drying rack.
- Dry for 30 minutes before storing. Repeat the process until all the pasta is cut.
Notes
- The key to successful homemade pasta is patience—let the dough rest properly and work with one piece at a time.
- If you don't have a pasta maker, you can roll the dough with a rolling pin, though it will require more effort.
- The basil leaves create beautiful visual patterns in the finished pasta.