At Grandma’s Frozen Egg Noodles, we love all noodles, ours or your own homemade version. If you make fresh pasta or egg noodles, you must know about proper storage techniques to maintain excellence so that you can serve your family wholesome and nourishing meals they will remember.

In broad terms, pasta and noodles can be divided into two categories—dried and fresh. Fresh pasta has a significant subcategory of frozen products because fresh pasta made with eggs and egg noodles are so perishable that you must either use them the day they are made or freeze them to keep them safe. 

Commercial dried Italian pasta is made with semolina. The word “durum” translates to “hard” in Latin and if you have ever tried rolling out this sort of dough by hand, you will agree. It is hard. Semolina is made from milling durum wheat, an exceptionally sturdy wheat high in gluten and golden in color with a higher protein content than all-purpose flour. Pasta made without eggs from semolina flour and water can be dried to last indefinitely and was a boon to early immigrants from Italy to the new world who brought the dried pasta by ship. Thomas Jefferson traveled to Italy in 1787 with a sketch for a “maccaroni” machine and the recipe for pasta and had regular shipments of dried pasta shipped from Europe.

Fresh pasta with egg and egg noodles have been made for centuries, before the advent of refrigeration, but were typically used immediately and not stored for future use. This type of pasta is made with AP flour or Italian “00” flour, doppio zero, which is durum wheat ground into a powder that provides significant “bite” to a noodle. The addition of egg makes the pasta dough softer and easier to handle. Still, there are food safety issues to consider when adding egg, which is a potentially hazardous food if not handled properly. Current food safety guidelines caution that pasta or noodles made with egg carry a slight possibility of salmonella contamination. If you dry egg pasta at kitchen temperatures for prolonged periods of time, the microbes may multiply to hazardous levels. 

Ideally, you should store pasta with egg or egg noodles in the freezer. 

Freezing food to preserve it dates back to 3,000 BC in China, where food was preserved in ice cellars. In the United States, using ice houses and later ice boxes to keep food cold was prevalent in the 1800’s but the true game changer for food preservation in the Western world came about 100 years ago.

Clarence Birdseye worked as a fur trapper in Labrador alongside the Native Inuits. He noticed that their fish froze almost immediately in the -22°F temperatures. The fish was remarkably similar to fresh when used, retaining its flavor and texture, even when defrosted months later. This observation led Birdseye to create a method to flash freeze food at temperatures of −45 °F to avoid the degradation of product that occurred at lower freezing temperatures when the cell walls burst upon defrosting, leading to mushy product. In 1925, Birdseye created the double belt freezer and, two years later, the multiplate freezing machine, inaugurating the frozen food industry.

If you simply refrigerate homemade uncooked pasta, it will start to turn color in about 18 hours, taking on an unappetizing grayish-green tint. This is due to the iron in the egg yolks. While not hazardous to eat, the color is off-putting. In addition, the water in the noodles will start to migrate out, causing them to be gummy and clump together when cooked. Leave uncooked egg pasta for more than 3 days, and you may have a slimy, congealed pile that has a rancid, unpleasant odor and could make you ill if you eat it. 

Pasta sold as fresh in the grocery stores in refrigerator cases has been packaged with nitrogen and carbon dioxide and has less than 1% oxygen to prevent discoloration. If the package is opened and not cooked entirely, the remaining pasta should be frozen to maintain freshness. 

Key Differences—ingredients, texture, storage, and best uses

Dried Pasta

• Typically made from semolina flour and water
• Can be stored at room temperature almost indefinitely
• Air-dried, bronze-die-extruded pastas originated in southern Italy
• Firmness of dried pasta allows it to hold up to the heartiest sauces with tomatoes and meat
• Sturdy texture helps flavorful sauces to “cling” to cooked pasta
• Properly cooked “al dente” to have some bite  
• Most shapes of dried pasta double in size when cooked
• Most economical option
• When used in soups, can absorb the liquid and swell substantially

Fresh Pasta/Egg Noodle

• Contains eggs, so requires special handling for food safety concerns
• Made with AP or “00” flour
• More tender than dried and takes half the time to cook
• Delicate texture makes it perfect for cream and dairy-based sauces
• Too soft to cook “al dente”
• Fresh pasta is smooth and supple when properly cooked and slightly firm
• Fresh pasta is more common in northern Italy
• It tends to be more expensive than dried 
• Must be refrigerated and used promptly to avoid discoloring and spoilage

Frozen Pasta/Egg Noodle

• Contains eggs, so requires special handling for food safety concerns
• No need to defrost
• Cooks in a slightly more extended time than freshly made
• Smooth and supple like freshly made 
• Egg noodles are more common in northern European cuisines
• Conveniently at hand in your freezer
• Perfect for serving with soups and stews because the presence of egg impedes the absorption of liquid in the dish
• More costly than dried but not as expensive, generally, as refrigerated pasta

If you have made the effort to make homemade pasta with eggs or egg noodles, here are some storage methods to save your efforts for a jump start on dinner another day.

 How to Freeze Fresh Homemade Pasta or Egg Noodles

• Line a baking sheet with parchment.
• Sprinkle AP flour (or semolina) on the parchment.
• Toss the strand pasta in the flour and coil several strands into a nest on the parchment paper. Aim for 2 to 4-ounce nests and space the nests out on the baking sheet.
• For shaped pasta, like tortellini or ravioli, spread the pasta in a single layer on the floured baking sheet.
• Place the baking tray in the freezer for one hour.
• Remove the nests or the shaped pasta and place in ziploc bags with the date clearly marked. 
• Store in the freezer and use within a month for best quality.