Pasta Dough Recipe
a Step-by-Step Guide

It's not hard to make fresh pasta at home. Although there are many slight variations in pasta recipes, this is one of the easiest methods - follow it and you'll be making fantastic pasta in no time!

Ingredients:
(enough for 2 people)

1 cup plain flour
1 large egg
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon water
1/4 teaspoon salt

Step 1
Place all the ingredients in a large bowl or food processor and mix well, the dough should stick together if you press it with your fingers, the texture should be rather like uncooked rice. If it is too dry, you can add a little more water, or if it's too sticky add a little more flour.

Step 2
Mould the dough into a ball and leave it in the bowl, covered with a damp cloth, for around 10 minutes. The dust your worksurface with a little flour and knead the dough until it feels smooth, this should take 5-10 minutes.

Step 3
Now it's time to roll out the pasta. Set the pasta maker machine to its thickest setting. Take 1/3 of the dough and roll it out with a rolling pin so it's thin enough to fit into the machine. Put the dough through the machine 3 times, turning and folding it each time. Turn the machine to its next setting (one notch thinner) and put the same piece of dough through the machine 3 times as before. Repeat this for all the width settings on the machine. The pasta will get thinner each time.

Step 4
By now you will have a long, smooth sheet of pasta. Place it on the table and cut it into your desired length, about 10 inches long. Sprinkle lightly with flour. Now pass the sheet of pasta through the cutters on the other side of the pasta machine. Set the width of the cut to your preference, for example a setting of 1/8" would give you linguini, 1/4" for fettucini. Turn the handle with one hand, using your other hand to catch the finished pasta.

Step 5
Place the finished pasta on a clean tablecloth, trying to keep the strands as separate as possible. Allow it to dry for an hour or so.

To cook the pasta, add 1 tablespoon of salt to a large pan of boiling water and cook for 2 to 3 minutes. A pasta cooker/steamer will make life easier.