How to Make Fresh Pasta

There is nothing like homemade pasta. It is not very difficult to make, and it such a treat for friends and family, either with your favorite sauce, or tossed with olive oil, garlic, parmesan cheese and roasted vegetables. It is guaranteed to impress!

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• A food processor
• a manual pasta machine (this is optional if you don't mind rolling and cutting the dough by hand, much more labor intensive)
• unbleached all purpose flour
• extra virgin olive oil
• fresh eggs
• water
• table or countertop covered with tablecloth to lay the pasta to dry

1. Place one heaping cup of flour in food processor with one large egg, 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil and about 1 tablespoon water. Process for 10 to 15 seconds.
   The pasta dough should have a texture a little finer than uncooked rice, tiny little balls. Pinch it together with your fingers and if it sticks together well, doesn't feel too dry or wet, then it it is the right consistency.
2. If it is too sticky, add more flour, one tablespoonful at a time, if it is too dry (the little balls will be REALLY tiny) add water one teaspoonful at a time. Gather dough into a ball. This amount of dough will make enough pasta for 2 people. To make more dough, repeat the instructions. In other words, make only the one cup of flour recipe at a time.
3. Let balls of dough rest, (which means just lay there) under a damp dish towel for about 10 minutes.
   Clamp pasta machine to table or countertop.
   Pinch off about 1/3 of a ball of dough and roll it with a rolling pin, thin enough to fit into the roller part of the pasta machine when it is on the first ( thickest) setting.
4. Put dough through rollers on that first setting two or three times or until pasta is smooth to the touch. Then change the thickness setting to 2, 3, 4 and 5, putting the same piece of dough through on each setting. Since all pasta machines may not be alike, you may have to judge how thin you like your pasta. My machine has 6 settings and I usually stop at number 5. The idea is that the dough gets thinner as you put it through the rollers set at a higher number.
5. At this point you will have a very long, smooth sheet of pasta about 5 inches wide. It should have a smooth silky texture.
   Lay it on the cloth covered table and cut it into your desired lengths, about 10 inches long. Sprinkle lightly with flour.
   Now put the sheet of pasta through the cutters on the other side of the pasta machine. Most machines have a width that is about 1/4 inch wide for fettucini and one that is about 1/8 inch wide that is for linguini.
   Move handle from the rollers to the cutters on the opposite side of pasta machine.
   Allow 10 inch strip of dough to enter the cutters while turning the handle. Reach under the machine to catch the finished pasta.
6. Lay finished pasta on clean tablecloth, keeping the strands as separate as possible. Allow to dry for an hour or two.
   Cook in large pot of boiling water with 1 tablespoon of salt for 2 to 3 minutes and serve with your favorite sauce. If you don't plan to cook it right away, you can put it in freezer bags and freeze indefinitely.
   Fresh pasta is not only delicious and economical, but extremely satisfying to make and serve!