How to make Easy Pasta Dough

We love fresh pasta.  We don't make it all the time as the shop bought stuff is very cheap.  However, the taste and texture of home made pasta is far superior and it gives you the flexibility of making the type of pasta you want, especially when you have a fridge full of leftovers to play with.  We love to make lasagne sheets, tortellini, gnocchi and long flat stuff, sorry I can't spell tagliatelly. 

Ingredients for 250g Pasta, two people

200g of ordinary flour
2 Eggs
2tsps cold water
1/2 Tsp. salt

Instructions

Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl with a wooden spoon.  Make a hole in the centre and drop in the eggs.  Add a tsp of the cold water, don't add the lot as the amount depends on the size of the eggs, if they are small you may need a tad more water.  Mix it all up with a fork until well combined into the usual blob.

Knead the pasta dough for about 4-5 minutes.  Basically, grab an edge with the thumb and forefinger of one hand, fold it over and then press it down and away from you with the heel of the other hand.  keep doing this until you have almost turned the entire lump of dough inside out.  If it's too wet, as it invariably is, sprinkle more flour on top between kneads, if too dry add some more of the cold water.  When the pasta dough is nice and smooth, dump it back in the bowl, cover with a cloth and leave it till you are ready to make the pasta you wish (an hour or 2 for resting is great for wine time). Time for a sip of wine perhaps or even better, a glass of home made beer.

That's the dough ready to go, now for the fashioning into shape fiasco.  Try some tortellini.