How To Make Pasta From Scratch

Making pasta from scratch is not for the faint of heart, and you need practice to get the dough, the consistency and the thickness right. But throwing together a batch of fresh pasta together from scratch is practically guaranteed to blow the ladies' clothes right off with its awesome power of sheer impressiveness.

For a basic pasta dough, you will need:

• 3 eggs
• a pinch of salt
• a tablespoon of olive oil

1. Three cups all-purpose flour (unbleached if you want to show off more kitchen finesse), and some extra for dusting.
2. Begin with a clean and clear surface, preferably on a chopping board.
3. Dump the flour in the center of your workspace, and make a well in the center.
4. Crack the eggs and throw the salt into the center of the well.
5. Starting from the outside of the flour tower, work the flour into the eggs, without braking the well, until the eggs have incorporated themselves into the flour smoothly. The dough will be sticky, so if you need to, spread a very fine layer of flour over your work surface to get some grip.
6. Eventually, your dough will start looking like a smooth ball. The trick is to work the palm of your hands into it, kneading it and stretching it until the consistency is constant throughout the dough. You don't want any lumps. They don't taste nice.
7. When you feel like the dough is ready, divide it into three balls and loosely wrap them in cellophane.
8. Refrigerate the dough balls for 15-20 minutes before use.
9. When you're ready, clean your workspace again, dust a very fine layer of flour over it, and shape your pasta using a pasta maker or by hand.  Allow the pasta to dry as much as possible (preferably overnight) before cooking.*

*Cooking times will be much shorter than your usual pre-boxed, dried pasta. Count on 2-3 minutes for spaghetti, but 3-5 for fusilli or similar shapes.