Homemade pasta! Don’t be afraid, making pasta is not hard at all, with just a bit of practice you will be able to produce pasta in no time – and pasta is so versatile, you won’t run out of ideas anytime soon either! For the basic pasta dough you only need 4 ingredients: flour, salt, eggs, and olive oil.
There are very simple pasta makers that will make the handling of the dough easier and guarantee consistently thin noodles or ravioli. I’ve got the Imperia Pastaia Italiana as a birthday present a couple of years ago and to this day it’s the most used gift I’ve ever gotten! If you don’t have a pasta maker at hand, don’t panic: you can roll out your dough with a rolling pin and cut the noodles with a sharp knife – they might not come out all the same but that’s part of the appeal of homemade food, isn’t it?

Now for the recipe, which is taken from my favorite basics cook book, TipTopf.

Ingredients (for 4 people):
300g flour (all purpose, white flour)
1/2 teaspoon of salt
3 eggs (medium)
1 tablespoon of olive oil

Preparation:
Whisk the eggs with the oil. Place the flour and salt in a bowl and form a small mould in the middle. Put the eggs and oil in the mould and start stirring the dough from the centre. Knead the dough until it is smooth. Place the dough in a bowl, cover with a damp cloth and let it rest for about 30 minutes. Roll out the dough very thinly in portions with enough flour or prepare it with the pasta maker. Again, add flour so that the pasta sheets do not stick together. Place the pasta sheets or noodles on a tray until the whole dough is prepared.
Cook the pasta either directly in salted water (approx. 3-5 minutes) or let it dry (dried pasta must be cooked for 5-10 minutes). The cooking time will vary depending on how thick you make your pasta, so always try! When they are al dente, drain the pasta and mix with a little olive oil to prevent it from sticking together.

Tip: For ravioli or tortellini, roll out the dough very thinly (the thinnest level possible with the pasta maker).