Tagliatelle, one of the most iconic dishes of Italian tradition, is a type of pasta that originated in Emilia but has spread far beyond the region's borders and is now beloved throughout the peninsula. Soft wheat flour, fresh eggs, and a pinch of salt are all you need to prepare them: three simple ingredients that allow you to obtain a fresh pasta that pairs well with dozens of different sauces, from the traditional Bolognese ragù to a sauce with porcini mushrooms or truffle. Making tagliatelle at home is not difficult, but like any recipe, this one also has its pitfalls. Have you ever made tagliatelle at home and found the dough was too hard or too sticky, that broke during cooking, or that wasn't evenly mixed? It's because you've surely made one of these 6 mistakes: here are what they are and, more importantly, how to avoid them to obtain perfect homemade tagliatelle.
1. Not Mixing the Ingredients Well
One of the first and most common mistakes that compromises the success of tagliatelle (but, in reality, this applies to all types of homemade egg pasta) is kneading the ingredients incorrectly, particularly when done weakly and for too long. Kneading fresh pasta requires decisive, energetic movements to thoroughly combine all the ingredients for a period of time that doesn't exceed ten minutes: kneading for too long, in fact, leads to the opposite effect, that is, a dough that becomes excessively tough. Extremely important in these preparations is the ability to "feel" the softness of the dough by touch, something that develops with experience: make as many tagliatelle as you can and you'll see that, after a while, you'll acquire the ability to recognize when the dough has reached the right consistency.
2. Being Too Rigid With Proportions
For tagliatelle, the classic 1-to-1 ratio applies to all fresh egg pasta: 1 egg for every 100 grams of flour. This is the rule indicated in the traditional tagliatelle recipe registered with the Bologna Chamber of Commerce, but as with all homemade preparations, it isn't absolutely true; in fact, being too rigid with the proportions is one of the factors that can ruin the dough. The ratio can vary, for example, depending on the size of the eggs (if they are very large or very small, they require a different amount of flour than the classic 100 grams), but also on the type of dough you want to make. If you want a moister dough that's easier to roll out with a rolling pin, you may need to add an extra egg or a drop of water; conversely, for a drier dough, which needs to be rolled out with a pasta machine, you may need to add a pinch more flour.
3. Not Respecting Resting Times
One step you must be absolutely strict about is the dough's resting time: failing to do so is one of the main factors in the failure of your tagliatelle. Resting is crucial because it helps the different components of the dough bond together, preventing them from falling apart when rolled out, and also helps it lose its excessive elasticity, which causes it to shrink when rolled out. The ideal consistency is achieved with 30 minutes of resting at room temperature and with an adequate covering that prevents the dough from remaining moist.
4. Covering the Dough Loosely
Remember this fundamental rule when making tagliatelle: dryness is your dough's worst enemy. How does it dry out? When it's covered and stored poorly during the resting time and when you're ready to roll it out into tagliatelle. The best way to let your kneaded dough rest is to cover it with plastic wrap or a clean cotton cloth so it can breathe but also avoids absorbing too much air, which could dry it out. Be careful, this rule doesn't just apply during the resting time, but also when you roll out the dough: take only a small piece at a time to work with by hand or with a pasta machine, and always leave the rest of the dough wrapped in its own wrapper to retain its moisture.
5. Rolling Out the Dough Badly
The most delicate and difficult part of making homemade tagliatelle is rolling out the dough until it's even and the right thickness: according to the original recipe, the dough should be quite thin, 6-8 tenths of a millimeter thick. If you have a pasta machine, the job will certainly be easier. In this case, divide the dough into several equal pieces and then pass them, one at a time, through the most spaced roller, then the second, and so on until you reach the desired consistency. Don't skip the steps, as this could ruin the dough. If you have to roll out the pasta by hand, always work the dough a little at a time: stretch out the piece you've taken with your hands, slide the rolling pin over it, first in one direction and then the other, turning and flipping the dough frequently, until you obtain a fairly large disk. At this point – after ensuring a uniform thickness, which is crucial for even cooking of the pasta – sprinkle the pasta with semolina and let it dry for 5 minutes.
6. Cutting the Pasta Badly and With the Wrong Knife
The final step, the most delicate and one of the most error-prone, is cutting the pasta dough to obtain the perfect tagliatelle. In this case, no approximations are allowed: the thickness of the pasta must be between 6 and 8 tenths of a millimeter, and the width must be 7 millimeters when raw (which becomes 8 mm once cooked). These are not random measurements, because the thickness determines how well the pasta is cooked, while the width differentiates tagliatelle from other similar types of pasta, for example fettuccine (narrower) and pappardelle (wider). But to obtain perfect tagliatelle, it's not enough to respect the measurements; you also need to use the right tool. The knife suitable for cutting tagliatelle in Bolognese dialect is called a cortlénna: also called a coltellina, it is a long knife with a tall, rectangular blade. If you don't have one, you should use a knife as close to this model as possible. Never cut with a knife with a dull blade or, worse still, a serrated one.
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