Fresh Pasta

Yeh... This wasn't easy, but I think it would have been even harder if I didn't have a reliable source and good equipment. I decided to wholeheartedly trust the queen of Italian food writing, Anna Del Conte. She uses the traditional Emilian way of making pasta which uses just flour and eggs, no oil or semolina like more southern recipes ask for. This is her recipe through and through and I followed her method to the letter, apart from the fact that I do leave mine to rest straight after kneading for about 30 minutes to an hour because most recipes do call for this, somehow she manages to achieve perfect texture without it, I blame it on her Italian Kitchen Magic; (apart from that, I obviously haven't posted it word for word because of copyright), and I've also shared some of her best tips on pasta.
You'll be surprised how different it is from shop bought, you can taste the egg a lot more, it has a smoother texture and generally it just tastes more homemade; in the good way. You'll have to try it yourself to see.

• You should invest in a decent pasta machine for this. An expensive electronic one is not necessary, but a good hand roller that is usually around 20 pounds is perfect.
• Use the special Italian '00' flour as regular flour makes a tough, badly textured and difficult to handle pasta.
• The general rule of thumb is about 1 egg to 100g of flour, but absorbency and humidity vary so don't incorporate all the flour at once.
• When rolling and kneading the pasta keep your hands clean and completely dry.
• Although you should keep everywhere well-dusted with flour, don't use too much, just enough to keep it from sticking.
• Use semolina to dust when drying pasta shapes before cooking.
• Try to keep your pasta as square and neat and as possible whilst rolling, if there are any too thin and messy edges, just cut them off.
• Never skip from a roller position, go up in ones gradually and repeat a thickness and dust with flour if it's not smooth.
• Tagliatelle should be rolled to about 7 or 8 thickness, spaghetti about 6, and ravioli or lasagne the finest position.
• Fine pasta shapes like spaghetti are best with oily or creamy sauces with few large chunks. A large exception is puttanesca, a sauce made from olives, anchovies, tomatoes and capers. Shapes like fusilli are also best with oily sauces like pesto. Chunkier sauces like ragu or bolognese should traditionally be served with flat shapes like tagliatelle. Chunky sauces are also good with conchiglie. 
• Don't put too much sauce with the pasta, about a small fist shape of sauce per plate is perfect.
• When cooking the pasta, keep it in well salted water. An Italian saying is to keep it as salty as the sea. Don't use oil ever. Cook it in a large pan where the pasta has a lot of space.
• Obviously, day to day life doesn't have enough time to make your own pasta, but don't think you can substitute homemade fresh with bought fresh. Dried egg-based pasta is the best kind to use day-to-day.
• Pasta that is soft but still a little bite is the perfect cook (al dente, literally, to the tooth)
• Use nice fresh free-range eggs if you can.
• Don't wash the machine by hand, just use a tea towell to brush the flour off.

1)Pour almost all of 300g of '00' flour on a work surface and make a well in the centre with tall but stable sides to hold the eggs.
2)Crack 3 eggs which you may want to beat lightly beforehand and a pinch of salt into the well. Don't worry if some egg leaks, just bring it back to the middle. Beat the eggs in the well and then slowly incorporate the flour.
3)When the eggs and flour have come together, clean your hands and surface. If the dough comes together and there's still excess flour, don't try to mix it in.
4)Knead the dough for about 5-10 minutes until smooth and quite stretchy, but not like bread. Its dough is very similar to short crust pastry.
5)Leave it to rest covered in cling film at room temperature although in the fridge it will last a few days.
6)Tear off chunks of dough about the size of oranges and flatten them so they can fit through the machine's widest setting. Put it through, fold it over in half, turn it and put it through the machine again. Repeat until it comes out smooth; about 6 times. Then, reduce the width one by one, keeping it as neat as possible, don't pull it as it will stretch and it can tear. If it rolls out less smooth, dust it with flour and repeat. Keep the rest of the dough covered with cling film so it doesn't dry out.
7)Hang the rolled out dough on the work surface on a dusted tea towell, with about 1/3 hanging over. Turn them over and swap so all of the dough has been hung off the side at some point. Leave for about 30 minutes until it goes drier and more leathery.
8)Dust each length of dough in semolina (don't use flour as it will go gluey when cooked) and pass through the cutter. If a few strands stick just gently ease them apart. Wrap the strands around your wrist to form a nest. Toss in more semolina.
9)Now you can cook them. Have a big pan of boiling salted water ready and toss the nests in. Cooking times for fresh pasta vary more, time them for about 4 minutes and then keep checking until they're cooked fully.
10)Drain and serve with a nice thick sauce and a light sprinkling of parmesan. Try the pasta on its own first just to taste the different flavour.