After making pasta from scratch for over 2 months now, I’ve found out what works best for quality pasta.
First, I quickly found out the best measurements for the dough. This took no time at all (maybe 1 hour of YouTube videos). There’s a lot of people who have their own measurements, but I find that 300 grams of flour, 2 tsp of kosher salt, and then 5 eggs (2 whole, 3 yokes) and then add water to the eggs to add up to 185 grams makes the best pasta dough. Also, if you have a food processor, that will save the time (10 minutes) of kneading by hand. Once you’ve combined ingredients in food processor, and you’ll need to add 1-2 tbsp of additional water to the mixing process, knead by hand for about a minute and then wrap in Saran Wrap for 30 minutes).
2. Depending on the pasta noodles you make (get a pasta machine - I do mine with a hand crank machine), you can immediately throw into the water after cutting (Spaghetti, Pappardelle, etc). However, if you are doing some with more shape (ie: bow tie pasta), the best noodle quality takes anywhere between 4 hours to 24 hours to get a better tasting noodle. They hold their shape better, are slightly chewier, and because they hold their shape better, they hold the sauce better.