Homemade Pasta

I didn't make homemade pasta tonight, but I do like to make it and, shoot, maybe I will again soon. I thought it would be silly to post the instructions for cooking store-bought pasta ~ they are on the package, and, if you are reading this, one would have to assume you can read ~ so I decided to post this recipe instead. This was originally written when my daughters and I first tried out the pasta machine my husband had given me as a gift. I have made it several times since then, and it is always just lovely. This recipe assumes you are using a pasta machine. Someday, I will post a recipe for homemade egg noodles that do not require the use of a pasta machine. For now, enjoy this:

Place 3 cups of flour in a large bowl. Make a well in the center. Crack 4 eggs into the well. Use a fork to gradually mix the flour into the eggs until the dough begins to come together. Move dough to a floured surface and work with your hands until you achieve a relatively uniform colour and texture. Now, the instructions did not say it should be "relatively" uniform, but that was as close as we were going to get. The dough is VERY stiff. If it won't hold together, you can add a sprinkle of water, but be very conservative in this matter.

Okay, so your dough looks pretty much like a lump of dough now. Form it into a ball and wrap it up in a towel. Let rest for a few minutes. Next, use a sharp knife to slice off 1/4" thick slices and process them in your pasta machine. Make sure you wrap up your lump of dough again each time you remove a slice (you don't want it to dry out). Adjust your pasta machine to its thickest setting. Run the slice of dough through, then lay it flat, sprinkle with a bit of flour, fold in thirds and run it through again on the same setting. Do this one more time. Now, turn the dial down a notch (to the next thinner setting) and run the dough through one time. Turn down, run through again. Repeat, adjusting the setting thinner and thinner for each pass, until the desired thickness is achieved. Finally, run the long, thin strip of dough you have created through the cutting end of your machine. Lay the pasta flat to dry.

The pasta should be cooked in boiling, salted water just until al dente (literally, "to the tooth" ~ in other words, you should have to use your tooth to cut it, it should not just squish). Toss with you favourite sauce. Here's one we like:

6-8 Roma tomatoes, diced
4-6 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
10-15 leaves of basil, chopped
a few oregano leaves
2 TBS olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Heat a skillet, then add olive oil and heat until quite warm. Turn off heat, place garlic in pan and swirl gently to cook the garlic until softened, but not brown. Add herbs, tomatoes, salt and pepper, and toss gently. You can serve it as is, or, if you prefer the tomatoes a bit softer, turn on the heat again and cook briefly, stirring constantly, until the tomatoes have reached your desired consistency. Toss with hot cooked pasta. If desired, top with grated cheese, and/or pine nuts (or chopped walnuts.