MAKING pasta from home may seem like a daunting bit of kitchen wizardry; something meant only for master chefs or elderly Italian women.

With a bit of confidence and know how though, homemade pasta is easier than most people realise and the taste and texture is unlike anything you will ever buy in a packet from the supermarket.

Don’t be intimidated, roll up your sleeves and give it a go, you won’t be disappointed.

To make homemade pasta you absolutely need a pasta rolling machine. Rolling pasta by hand can be a lot of work and is generally a lot more tricky to do! Pasta machines can picked up from as little as £25 online or in some supermarkets nowadays and most of them come with attachments for spaghetti and tagliatelle which makes things even easier. If you eat a lot of pasta and want to have a go from home, this is a good investment.

Homemade Pasta Ingredients

600g Tipo ‘00’ Flour (or all purpose)

6 Large Free Range Eggs

Salt

1. In a small bowl we want four whole eggs and two egg yolks (6 yolks, 4 whites altogether). Give them a good whisk.

2. If you can’t get hold of Tipo 00 flour, all purpose flour is absolutely fine, but Tipo 00 will just give you a slightly smoother silkier finish to your pasta dough. Weigh out 600g and on a clean work surface make a wide volcano shape with the flour, with enough room in the centre for your eggs to be poured. Pour the eggs in with a good pinch of salt.

3. Slowly but surely, using a fork, incorporate more and more flour from the edges of your egg volcano into the egg itself, whisking the pool of egg in the middle which should be getting thicker and thicker, slowly but surely. When the egg is no longer a liquid, bring everything together with your hands and into a rough dough. Knead for a good 10 minutes until you have a smooth silky dough.

You can use a food processor to bring the flour and egg together and then tip out to knead from there.

4. Once you have a smooth ball of dough, wrap it well in film, and leave to chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

5. You can then get on with making your ravioli filling, bolognese sauce or whatever you love to eat pasta with! A good starter for ravioli making is removing your favourite sausages from their skins and rolling the meat into balls. This goes great with a brown butter with sage which I’ll show you how to make below.

6. Once the pasta is chilled, set up your pasta machine with the rollers on the widest setting and slowly roll your pasta out, reducing the space between the rollers every time you pass through until you have very thin silky pasta. You will likely want to slice the pasta in half or thirds before doing this or have one or three friends ready to hold the pasta as it comes out of the machine. Be sure to use plenty of flour or the pasta will stick together. I’d recommend watching a few demos on the internet before having a go, but once you get the hang of it, it’s very simple to do.

7. To make a simple sausage ravioli, cut even circles out of your pasta sheets, place a sausage ball in the centre of each one and add another circle on top. Seal the edges with a little egg yolk and push all of the air out until you have what looks like a flying saucer. Neaten up the edges and then set aside.

8. The sauce depends on the amount of people you are feeding, but I would say a good tablespoon per person (I never said this was a healthy pasta dish). Melt the butter in a large pan on a low heat and continue to cook the butter until it turns a copper brown colour. The butter should not be bubbling rapidly. Add a big handful of sage (rosemary or thyme if you don’t like sage).

9. Add your ravioli to salted boiling water with a dash of olive oil so it doesn’t stick and cook for a few minutes before draining and adding the ravioli into the butter, coating it well.

10. Just add some flavour by including your favourite fresh herbs.