Homemade pasta

Equipment

• 1 Clean worksurface
• 1 Fork
• 1 Cling film
• 1 Rolling pin
• 1 Pasta machine
• 1 Knife
• 1 Pasta drying rack or clean broomstick

Instructions

1. Sift flour and a generous pinch of salt onto a clean worksurface and form it into a mound with a well in the centre.
2. Crack whole eggs into a cup and slide into the well. Add extra virgin olive oil.
3. Using a fork, beat the eggs gently, incorporating a little flour in from the sides. Add egg yolks and continue to bring in sides incorporating a little flour at a time. Keep scraping up the sides of your mound as it threatens to spill over.
4. Eventually the egg mixture will spill out. Push the flour all over the mixture and combine into a dough ball.
5. Roll, fold and knead this until the dough takes on a silky texture. You will have to knead it for at least 5 to 10 minutes to get it to that stage.
6. Form it into a ball, cover with cling film and rest in the fridge for 2-4 hours.
7. To roll by hand: Roll the dough out into a long rectangle and double it over on itself 4 times as you continue to roll it out. Keep your work bench well floured.
8. For the final product by hand, roll it out to the thickness that you want your pasta strands and dust with flour on both sides. Fold it into 8th’s and hand cut slices to form the pasta strands.
9. To roll by machine: On the widest setting, pass your pasta through 4 times doubling it over on itself each time before it goes through the rollers.
10. Reduce your machine setting and pass it through each setting until you have your required thickness. Remember that the thinnest setting is very thin and really for lasagne sheets.
11. Pass your pasta through the cutter (fettucine or spaghetti) and hang over a clean broom stick to dry for a few hours. I like to dust mine with a little flour to keep the strands separated.