Making pasta from scratch is not something most Americans typically do.  But it’s actually not high on the difficulty scale and the reward is a great payoff.  I was told by a wise and well traveled Italian that there are three things that go into making good pasta, the eggs, the weather and the hands that knead the pasta.  After tasting the pasta that his wife makes, I am in complete agreement.

Typical of many of the best Italian foods, pasta has a short list of ingredients where freshness is key.  Here you need only flour, eggs and salt.  A little more specifically the quality and type of the flour is important, luckily DeCecco imports their semolina flour into the US.  If you can’t find that use the highest quality bread flour available.  Fresh eggs, medium sized, because the yolks are larger in comparison to the whites, and generous sprinkly of salt.

Make a mound of flour on a pre-floured wooden cutting board.  You want it to look like a volcano with eggs for lava. You want a ratio of about 1 cup of flour to 1 egg per person.  Sprinkle a healthy pinch of salt over the top and knead the dough until it is elastic and resilient. Add little sprinkles of flour as you are kneading whenever you feel any stickiness. It should take about 15 minutes.  Roll the dough out thoroughly, again with regular sprinkles of flour to make sure that the dough sticks to neither your rolling pin or the cutting board.  You want to get the dough to the thinness of a dime and this should  take about 20-25 minutes.

At the end of your little upper body workout slice, or slice and stuff and cook.  For the sliced pastas allow 4-7 minutes for cooking, less for thinner and more for wide noodles like lasagna.  For ravioli or tortillini; which can be filled with virtually anything, allow 5-10 minutes.  Fresh pasta begs for a simple fresh sauce and just a sprinkly of parmesan and cracked pepper.