Pasta: How to make fresh egg pasta

Being able to create your own homemade pasta dishes is as rewarding as it is fun. Whether it’s a simple tagliatelle, carefully shaped parcels of filled ravioli or thick tubes of rich, baked cannelloni. Handmade pasta is the ultimate nutritional carbohydrate, even better than potatoes, and it allows you to add almost anything to create something very special to share with friends.

Ingredients

3 eggs
300g flour
⅛ tsp salt
1 tsp olive oil

Place all ingredients in a food processor and blend until it starts to come together. Tip out on the bench and knead until smooth. Shape into a ball and press down flat (this will make it easier to roll later) Wrap in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Using a rolling pin to hand-roll

1. Divide the dough into 4 even pieces.
2. Lightly dust the bench with flour, press one piece of dough with your hands to flatten it out as much as possible.
3. Roll the dough in one single direction until it is about 20cm long.
4. Turn the dough 90 degrees and roll in until it is about 8cm wide.
5. Turn the dough 90 degrees again and continue to roll the dough out as thin as possible. Use extra flour as necessary to avoid the dough sticking.
6. The ideal thickness for most egg pasta recipes is from 1-2mm

Using a pasta machine

1. Divide the dough into 2 even pieces.
2. Lightly dust the bench with flour and press each piece of dough with your hands to flatten it out as much as possible.
3. Roll the dough through the machine on the widest setting then roll it through again on that setting.
4. Lightly dust the dough with flour then make the setting one notch smaller. Roll the dough through once, then continue to reduce the setting and roll the dough through once each time.
5. Be careful not to use too much flour as this will make the dough tough. Try to roll the dough in a single continuous roll without stopping — like riding a bike up hill. Stopping during rolling will leave lines on your dough.
6. The ideal thickness for most egg pasta recipes is between 1-2mm.

Make ravioli

Using your freshly-made egg pasta, you can make homemade ravioli - click here for step-by-step instructions.