Don't be put off by the length of this posting - this is such an easy recipe I'm typing it at work without the book in front of me
I use Nigella Lawson's recipe: one large egg to each 100g of "00" flour (this is Italian pasta flour and gives the best result).
One "egg" of pasta serves 1-2 people, depending on how greedy you are! Its one of the few dishes where kids can really help, as unless you have an electric attachment its really helpful to have an extra pair of hands to turn the handle while you feed through the sheets.
Either on a floured board or in a large wide bowl sift the flour. Make a well in the centre and start working in the eggs (one at a time) until combined, then knead (like bread) until it comes together in a silky dough. Put a damp tea-towel over the bowl and leave in the fridge for 30 minutes (or longer if you're busy) to rest.
Take the dough out and knead it slightly so its not too stiff. cut "slices" off the ball and put them through the pasta machine - start off putting through the widest setting a few times (put it through, fold in half and repeat) so its nice and smooth then work through the settings to the thinnest. You may need to dust the dough and/or the machine from time to time with a little more flour
If you want to make ravioli you need to do this while the dough is still moist, but if you want to make fettucine or tagliatelli then leave it to rest until you've processed the whole ball of dough - you can buy special racks to drape the rolled sheets over, but I put a clean tea-towel over a clothes airer or chair back and leave them there. (You can put it through straight away, but its less sticky to do it this way.) You can loosely coil the strips of pasta and leave betweek two clean teatowels until you are ready to cook it (you seem to need a lot of teatowels for this job!
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When you're ready to cook then get plenty of salted water at a rolling boil, drop in the pasta and cook for a minute or two - test by tasting to see if you want it done a bit more
I usually serve simply with a spoon of pesto and grating of parmesan (double yummy!) or you can make "herb napkins" for a special meal - simply fold dough (rolled to thinnest setting) over whole herb leaves (soft ones like parsley, basil and sage work better than rosemary) and put through machine again. Cook as above, pile in a wide serving bowl and flood with a fresh tomato and basil sauce and sprinkle generously with shaved parmesan.
Happy cooking
