I'm making this pasta dough using correct measurements but the dough is not forming into a ball. It seems to be to dry and is basically like crumb...

...s. What should I do?

Sophie Wallerstedt
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2 Comments

Nancy December 14, 2014
one of my homemade pasta recipes (Hazan) has 1 egg per 60g flour and always works. Other, I've not tried yet, has same ratio as your recipe: 1 egg per 100g flour and it's not holding together. Following Hazan (not a bad thing), you could add 2 to 2.67 large eggs to your dough, knead after each addition and probably see it hold together. (also, resting after you knead into a ball and before rolling out will help the gluten relax). Good luck and let us know how it works. If it works.
 
Emiko December 14, 2014
Hi! This is the standard recipe for pasta dough used all over Italy! Are you using a mixer for this by any chance? If following the instructions exactly, you'll see why doing it by hand is much easier to control the consistency of the dough - you crack the eggs (medium sized) in the centre of the flour and whisk with a fork, slowly incorporating the flour into the egg, then you can stop when you get to the right consistency and knead by hand. You may not need all the flour, you may need it, so doing it this way allows you easy control, you'll never get to the 'breadcrumb' stage -- and it doesn't take long, I promise! But now that you're at a point with crumbs, I'd definitely try kneading by hand, pressing the dough well together, and maybe adding a splash of water (not too much) just to help bring more moisture back to the dough. Otherwise, start again and do it exactly as in the instructions and you should have no problems! Good luck!
 
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