Making pasta is made ten times easier when you have a pasta machine, but not all of us have that luxury. Instead, we've put together some tips to make a home made pasta dough recipe that's done entirely without machinery. There are many different techniques used in making pasta, but we're sticking the the traditional one because it is quite simply the most fun.

First you'll need to get your ingredients together, and making sure they are all good quality is essential to the end result. While we say 'all', there are actually just three ingredients in pasta dough: eggs, salt and flour. Try to use good quality eggs (free range and/or organic) as they will bind the flour together better, and use a very soft and fine flour too.

Start by sieving 300g flour into a bowl and then sieving it again onto a clean, dry and flat surface so that it forms a mountain-like shape (it will do this if you simply keep the sieve in the same place and shake or tap until the flour has fallen through). Make a well in the center of the flour, but not so deep that you can see the surface that your flour is on. Crack your three eggs into a bowl and beat them before pouring them into the well and adding a pinch of salt. Fold a bit of the flour over the top of the eggs and start to mix it together with your hands. You will get messy so wear an apron! Once the eggs and flour are mixed well together, start to knead the dough with the ball of your hand. Once you are finished there should be no unmixed pockets of flour. Instead the dough should be smooth and soft, almost spongey. You should be kneading the dough for around five minutes before you stop, as the ingredients need to mix really well in order for them to cook well too.

Roll the dough into a ball (this doesn't need to be perfect), wrap very well in cling film and store in a cool place for around one hour. Do not freeze it though! The next stage is the rolling and shaping into whatever type of pasta you fancy. This is up to you and there are plenty of tutorials and ideas online. Remember that each different type of pasta suits a different type of food well (e.g. penne for plain tomato sauces, while spaghetti suits seafood).

As you can see this home made pasta dough recipe is one that you can make easily with small children to get them interested in cooking. You may need to do the last stages of kneading as it needs to be handled for a long time and in a thorough way. This is one of those recipes that makes you feel proud to sit down at the table, about to eat a meal that is entirely of your own making, and from scratch too!

Stan Tian

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