Homemade Pasta

1. On a clean surface, place flour in a mound and use your hands to form a well in the middle. Crack eggs into a bowl and then pour the eggs into the middle of the well. Add a small drizzle of olive oil to the middle if desired.
2. Beat the eggs with a fork while adding a little bit of the flour from the sides at a time until all the flour is incorporated into the egg and the mixture becomes somewhat dry and crumbly.
3. Use your hands to knead the dough for 10 minutes. If the dough is too dry, wet your hands with water and continue to knead. Don't add water directly to the dough because it won't incorporate as well. If the dough is too wet and sticky, add a sprinkle of flour. After kneading for 10 minutes, there should be no more visible flour on the dough and it should have a smooth, soft, yet dense texture. It won't be light and airy like yeast dough. Place the dough in a small bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Allow to rest for 20-30 minutes. Use a bench scraper or knife to cut the dough into 3-4 equal pieces. Work with one piece at a time. Place the pieces that aren't being used back in the bowl and cover them with plastic wrap. This will keep the other pieces from drying out.
4. Using your hands, flatten out one piece of dough into an oval shape. Using your pasta maker's widest setting (for my pasta roller, the widest setting is a "1", other rollers might have this flip-flopped with their widest setting as the highest number), feed the dough through 2-3 times.
5. Repeat feeding the dough through, increasing the level each time. Level 2, 3, etc... until you feed it through at your pasta maker's narrowest level. If you find the pasta starts to stick, sprinkle some more flour over the pasta and/or onto the feeder of the pasta machine.
6. Dust a clean surface with flour and lay your large, flat, rolled pasta over the top. Sprinkle a little more flour over the top and use your hands to dust the flour evenly over the flattened pasta sheet. Repeat with remaining dough pieces.
7. If your pasta maker has a pasta cutter side (most do), run your pasta sheet through the cutter of your desired pasta size (if your sheets are super long, you can cut them in half or thirds before feeding them through). If you do not have a pasta cutter, gently fold the sheets over in half, repeating until you have a narrow stack, then use a sharp knife to slice into noodles.

Cooking the Noodles:

1. To cook your fresh noodles, bring a large pot of salted water to a rolling boil. You can be generous with the salt in the water because there is no salt in the noodles. Boil for 1-3 minutes depending on the thickness of your pasta noodles. The best way to tell if they are done is to simply taste them.

For Storage:

1. After cutting your fresh noodles, gently dust the noodles with a little more flour and allow them to dry out for about 8-10 minutes (no more or your pasta will break). Gently form noodles into nests. Store your fresh noodles in the refrigerator for up to 3-4 days or in the freezer for up to 5 months.