There is nothing like homemade pasta. Flour and eggs come together to form tender, rich, and silky dough that you can roll out into sheets for lasagna, cut into fettuccine, or stuff and fold into ravioli. Once you get the knack of it, making pasta is a very satisfying skill. Plus, it costs a fraction of store-bought “fresh” pasta (which can be months old), and it has no additives or preservatives. I like to make pasta dough by hand or in a heavy-duty mixer. Each method has its merits. Feeling and touching the dough enables you to judge when the balance of flour and eggs is just right, but using a mixer is a lot neater and makes short work of kneading the heavy dough. I don’t recommend using a food processor, since it tends to heat up the dough and toughen it. Once the dough is ready, you can roll it out with a hand-cranked pasta machine or an electric powered roller (I have one that attaches to my heavy-duty mixer) or by hand with a rolling pin. The rolling pin does a great job, but it takes patience to get the pasta thin and even. I don’t like the texture of the pasta that results from the extruding machines I’ve tried.

Makes about 1 pound

INGREDIENTS

• 4 large eggs, beaten
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• About 3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

INSTRUCTIONS

1. To make the dough in a heavy-duty mixer: Put the eggs and olive oil into the bowl of the mixer fitted with the flat beater. With the mixer on low, add the flour a little at a time, stopping when the dough forms a ball around the beater and cleans the sides of the bowl. Pinch the dough: It should feel moist but not sticky. If it is sticky, add a little bit more flour as needed. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 1 minute, or until the dough forms a neat ball with no streaks of flour.
2. To make the dough by hand: Mound the flour on a work surface. With your fingertips, make a wide crater in the center of the mound of flour. Pour in the eggs and oil and begin stirring with a fork, gradually incorporating the flour from the inside of the crater. Use your other hand to stabilize the wall of flour and prevent it from collapsing as you stir. When most of the flour has been incorporated and the dough forms a ball and becomes too firm to stir, push the remaining flour to one side. Lightly flour your hands and begin kneading, pushing the dough away from you with the heels of your hands and pulling it back toward you with your fingertips. Continue kneading, gradually incorporating some of the remaining flour, until the ball becomes somewhat smooth and feels moist but only slightly sticky. Do not add more flour than necessary, or the dough will become too dry. Continue kneading for 8 to 10 minutes, or until there are no streaks of flour in the dough and the color is evenly yellow. With either method, set the dough aside and cover it with an overturned bowl to prevent it from drying out. Let it rest for at least 30 minutes. Meanwhile, scrape the work surface to remove any scraps of dough.
3. To roll out the dough with a pasta machine: Set up the pasta machine, set the rollers at the widest opening, and dust them lightly with flour. Cut the dough into 4 to 6 pieces. Work with 1 piece at a time, keeping the remainder covered. Flatten a piece of dough into an oval disk. Turn the handle of the pasta machine with one hand and guide the piece of dough through the rollers with the other. If the dough sticks, ripples, or tears, dust it lightly with flour. Fold the dough crosswise into thirds. Pass it through the machine again, flouring it if necessary. Make a third pass in the same way. Move the dial to the next notch and pass the dough through the rollers. As the dough emerges, lift it straight out so that it stays flat, without wrinkling (do not fold it this time). Continue to pass the dough through the machine, moving the dial one notch each time, until the desired thinness is reached. This will vary according to the machine, but I usually stop at the second-to-the-last setting for fettuccine, lasagna, and other flat pastas and the last notch for stuffed pasta. The pasta should be thin enough that you can see your hand through it without tearing. (Don’t be tempted to reroll scraps of dough. Hardened edges can stick in the machine and tear the pasta.) Lay the strip of dough on a lightly floured kitchen towel. Roll out the remaining dough in the same way, making all of the strips of equal thickness. Turn the finished strips often so that they do not stick. If the dough will be used to make stuffed pasta, such as ravioli, keep it covered so that it remains pliable and use as soon as possible.
4. To roll out the dough by hand:  Cut the dough into 4 to 6 pieces. Work with 1 piece at a time, keeping the remainder covered. Lightly dust a clean work surface with flour. Shape a piece of dough into a disk. Dust a long wooden rolling pin with flour. Place the pin on the dough and roll it away from you toward the edge. Rotate the dough a quarter turn, center the pin on it, and push toward the edge once more. Repeat rotating and rolling the dough out from the center, keeping the shape round and the thickness even. Flip the dough over from time to time to be sure it is not sticking. Dust it lightly with flour if needed, but don’t use so much flour that the dough dries out. The dough is thin enough when you can easily see your hand through it when it is held up to the light. Lay the dough on a lightly floured kitchen towel. Roll out the remaining dough in the same way. If the dough will be used to make stuffed pasta, such as ravioli, keep it covered so that it remains pliable and use as soon as possible.
5. To cut the dough with a pasta machine: Following the manufacturer’s instructions, pass each sheet of dough through the cutters. As the dough emerges, lift it straight out with your other hand so that the strands do not collect on the countertop and become wrinkled. (For a manual machine, it helps to have an assistant—that way, one can pass the dough through the cutters and lift it out while the other turns the crank.) Place the strands on a floured surface.
6. To cut the dough by hand: Let the dough dry until it is slightly leathery but still pliable, about 20 minutes. Cut the dough into 10-inch lengths with a large heavy chef’s knife. Loosely roll up a strip of dough and cut it crosswise into strips 4 inches wide for lasagna or ¼ inch wide for fettuccine. Separate the strips and place them flat on a floured surface to dry for about 1 hour at room temperature.
7. To store fresh egg pasta: The pasta can be used immediately, frozen, or allowed to dry completely before storing.
8. To freeze the pasta, place the strips on baking sheets lightly dusted with flour so that they do not touch and place the baking sheets in the freezer. When the pasta is firm, gently gather fettuccine into a bundle or stack lasagna sheets. Wrap the pasta well in layers of plastic wrap or foil. Freeze for up to 1 month.
9. To dry the pasta, place the strips, not touching, on lightly floured baking sheets and cover with
10. lightweight kitchen towels. (Do not cover them with plastic or foil, or they will turn moldy.) Leave the strips at room temperature for up to several days, until the pieces are completely dry and snap when broken. Store in plastic bags in the pantry until ready to use.