Handmade heaven: 10 great recipes for making your own pasta

Embrace your inner nonna with these recipes for handmade pasta, from tagliatelle and lasagne sheets to twists and filled pasta parcels.

From simple sheets for lasagne to the fun of created rolled or twisted shapes, making your own pasta is a satisfying thing to do, and often easier than you might think.

Here we've rounded up a brace of recipes from across Italy (and a few from further afield, too).

Handmade tagliatelle with ragú Napoletano

Looking for a pasta recipe that you can make with just a rolling pin and a knife? This recipe from Silvia Colloca shows you how to make a simple flour and egg tagliatelle, which you can roll out with a pasta machine or a rolling pin. She pairs it with a rich, slow-cooked ragu (allow 4-6 hours, or even 8 if you can!).

Hand rolled and cut tagliatelle with ragú Napoletano Credit: Cook like an Italian

Sperandina’s asparagus lasagna from Le Marche (lasagna con asparagi)

This recipe is from one of the many women featured in the much-loved Pasta Grannies YouTube channel (which has more than a milllion followers!) and multiple books by the woman behind the channel, Vicki Bennison, who says "It’s not just about the pasta – Pasta Grannies is about hospitality and comfort, and a celebration of the knowledge acquired over a lifetime". Homemade egg and flour pasta is rolled into four thin sheets, which are blanched then layered with an asparagus and bechamel filling.

Credit: Hardie Grant Books / Lizzie Mayson

Cesaria’s lorighittas with chicken

Lorighittas are double-hooped, twisted strands of spaghetti. In the days before radio, TV and mobile phones, making lorighittas was an opportunity for women to get together to gossip and sing. This recipe comes from the original Pasta Grannies cookbook.

Cesaria’s lorighittas with chicken Credit: Pasta Grannies by Hardie Grant

Ferretti with beef ragu

Hailing from southern Italy, ferretti is a cylindrical pasta traditionally made by rolling dough around a long, thin rod. Here, Massimo Mele serves his handmade pasta with a rich, slow-cooked beef ragu.

Ferretti with beef ragu. Credit: The Chef's Garden

Garganelli with ragu Bolognese

Athens-born Andreas Papadakis, of Melbourne's Tipo 00, has divoted a large chunk of his career to his love of Italian pasta. Here, he shares a recipe from his book Tipo 00 The Pasta Cookbook, which uses his master pasta dough recipe to make garganelli, a traditional tube-shaped pasta. The little tubes traditionally have a ridged surface, created when small squares of dough are rolled over a comb or ridged board. Here he serves it with a rice beef and pork ragu bolognese. (For another way of creating the ridges, using a fork, have a look at this recipe, where the pasta is served with a rabbit ragu).

Garganelli with ragu Bolognese. Credit: Murdoch Books / Mark Roper

Monica’s pasta baskets with ricotta and lemon

Another Pasta Grannies recipes, this makes little pasta "baskets" with a ricotta, parmesan and lemon filling,served with melted butter and a dusting of cinnamon.

Monica’s pasta baskets with ricotta and lemon Credit: Pasta Grannies by Hardie Grant

Handmade Greek pasta (Makaronia spartou)

This Greek recipe for pasta hails from the Greek island of Chios and is called spartou, after the name for reed in Greek. It is also sometimes called herisia, for handmade. This pasta is a local favorite that brings back very fond memories for anyone old enough to remember their mothers and grandmothers on the island making it, says Diane Kochilas, who shared this recipe.

Credit: My Greek Table

Fusi with peas, tomatoes and cinnamon (Fusi coi bisi, pomodoro e cannella)

Fusi (or fuži) are the typical pasta of Istria, typically eaten with a sugo containing chicken, hare, partridge or other game, or with truffles. Paola Bacchia loves them with any sauce that you would eat with pasta, and usually opts for a simple vegetarian one, made from pantry ingredients.

Fusi with peas, tomatoes and cinnamon (Fusi coi bisi, pomodoro e cannella) Credit: Paola Bacchia

Maltagliati semolina pasta with speck

Another that needs no pasta machine - just roll it out with a rolling pin then cut into rough shapes - this recipe from Matthew Evans pairs a semolina pasta with a speck and cheese sauce.

Spaghetti Montepulciano

This home-made semolina pasta (made with red wine in the dough!) is served in a rich sauce of pork sausage, carrot and celery. You can use a pasta machine or a rolling pin to roll the dough, and then cut with a chitarra or knife.

Credit: Paola Bacchia