Make Fresh Pasta

Legend has it that Marco Polo first introduced pasta to Italy following his exploration of the Far East in the late 13th century; however, pasta can be traced back as far as the 4th century BC, where an Etruscan tomb shows a group of natives making what appears to be pasta. The Chinese were making a noodle-like food as early as 3000 BC.

Fresh pasta, or 'pasta fresca' to the Italians, has a taste that will make you rethink your notions of what good pasta is, in fact you may never want to buy the dried version again! Simple and cheap to make with only a few ingredients, pasta is a favourite around the world. In fact, all you need is flour, egg, salt, oil and water; though other ingredients, like milk, tomato and spinach are also used in some recipes, and other recipes may omit the egg. Our favorite pasta dough recipe is as simple as it gets.

Pasta comes in a huge variety of shapes and sizes, the reason being that they each complement a particular type of sauce. Chunky sauces tend to taste best with shapes like Penne which can hold the pieces of meat or vegetable in the sauce. Ribbon-like shapes such as Fettuccine are ideal with thick sauces. Thin noodles like Capellini (Angel Hair) complement lighter sauces.

This site will show you how to make authentic fresh pasta, give you some tips professional chefs use and take a look at some of the 'tools of the trade'. Making pasta is fun and rewarding - You really should try it!