How to make fresh egg pasta- tagliatelle, spaghetti, ravioli, lasagna basic recipe - Come fare la pasta fresca all'uovo - ricetta di base per tagliatelle, spaghetti, ravioli, lasagna etc...

Preparing fresh egg pasta at home is much easier than you think. It can be done in half hour time without machines or any other tool.

This is way my grandmother used to do it every Sunday in Italy at the family farm, few simple ingredients: fresh eggs, flour, water and salt; few simple steps: mix the ingredients and make the dough, shape the "sfoglia" with a rolling pin, shape your favourite pasta: spaghetti, tagliatelle, lasagne etc... A simple recipe made with few quality ingredients... what makes a good fresh egg pasta?
1. The flour: in order to get a good fresh pasta the quality of your flour mix is crucial. If you want to get a good texture you need to mix semolina (Farina rimacinata di grano duro) and AP flour, both organic when possible; the % may change depending on the kind of pasta you want to produce. 

For tagliatelle, spaghetti or lasagna you can mix 50% of AP flour and 50% of Semolina. The semolina will give consinstance to the dough and your pasta will always be al dente, the way every italian likes it.

For filled pasta (ravioli, tortellini etc...) the percentage is 70% of AP flour and 30% of semolina, as you need to fill the "sfoglia" and stick two layers, the "sfoglia" must be softer, but still consistent enough to be al dente after cooking!
2. Eggs: my grandma use to send me to get fresh eggs from the chicken's nestsing boxes,when she had to prepare fresh pasta. Nowdays unless you own some chickens, you buy good eggs in the supermarket, we can get good organic fresh farm eggs almost everywhere... good eggs will give the  good taste to your homemade pasta.
3. A good working method, some experience and a little patience.

Makes about 400-500gr of fresh pasta
Ingrediends:
100gr AP flour (organic)
100gr semolina flour (semola rimacinata di grano duro, organic)
2 fresh eggs (farm organic)
A pich of salt
A little water

Method:
Mix the 2 flours in a bowl. Place the flour mix on a worktop, give a volcano shape (see picture)

Place the eggs in the middle with a pich of salt. With your hand or a fork, start to beat the eggs and slowly add the flour to the eggs. Knead the dough and make a ball out of it. If the dough is too dry  you can add a little water.

 Important: it's always better to have a hard dough rather than a soft sticky one, a soft dough will be unworkable afterwards. If your dough is too soft you can add some flour.

Place the dough in a plastic bag for 10 minutes. This step allows the dough to relax and get softer.

Place the dough on the floured workingtop.

 Using a long rolling pin (Italian pasta rolling pin) start to shape the "sfoglia".

 See traditional rolling pin shaping method here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfGzuANVCp8 

 If you don't have a long rolling pin you can easily build one using a piece of wood, visit your local hardware shop...

Fold the "sfoglia" and cut tagliatelle or spaghetti using a very sharp knife.

Unfold the tagliatelle or spaghetti, dust with flour and make the pasta nests.

 Your pasta is ready to be cooked or frozen if you want.

 Important: place fresh pasta (or fresh pasta nests) on a tray  and place the tray in the freezer. Never overlap fresh pasta, it will stick and will be impossible to cook. Never defrost  frozen fresh pasta! Always cook it frozen,  directly in salted boiling water.

 Fresh pasta cooking time (frozen or not) is very short 2 to 3 minutes, in general when the pasta comes back on the water surface, it's ready!