Ingredients

• 100g type 00 or cake flour, per serving you wish to make
• 1 extra large egg, per serving. There are special pasta eggs in Italy with almost florescent yolks. I've no idea what they add to the recipe other than color.
• 1 T olive oil per serving

Directions

• place the flour on the table, make a volcano caldera out of it. ie hollow center with a ring of flour. You can do this in a bowl, too, if you want a small mess on your table/countertop.
• Crack open the eggs and place in the center of the flour caldera.
• Mix the eggs first, then start working in the flour. Don't mix too much flour in at once as you might not have enough egg to wet it out. If you end up too dry, don't worry, just put in some olive oil.
• You should end up with a nice elastic ball that doesn't stick to your hands. Knead gently the table or cutting board. Add a good splash of olive oil for each serving and work it in. The ball should be even more elastic. Add flour so it doesn't stick to your hands and isn't too oily.
• If you're making a big batch, consider dividing it up into portions for two people at a time. Rolling out more than two servings at once will either take an extra wide pin or will be very long. Three servings might be manageable, but four will overwhelm you especially if this is your first time making pasta.
• Press your pasta ball out into an oblong shape with your hands. Flour your work surface, flour the top of the pasta lump. Start rolling. You want end up with a rectangular sheet nearly as wide as your rolling pin (assuming you have a regular US style rolling pine, not a meter long Italian restaurant pin). Length is dependent on how much dough you have and its thickness. Dough for two servings rolls out to about 80cm for me. Make it about 2/3rds as thick as you want to end up with as the pasta will absorb water and thicken when cooked. The pasta should be quite elastic and strong, so go ahead and tug on the corners to square them up if you like. With a small amount of practice, you should be able to roll out pasta for two in five to ten minutes.
• Set the pasta sheet on a towel to dry for an hour or two. It should still be flexible, not crusty, when the drying process is over.
• From grabbing the flour and eggs to drying the pasta sheet takes me less than 15 minutes after three batches. Time might go down to ten minutes with more practice.This isn't a time consuming process!
• Fold the long edges in towards the center -- leave them about a 1/2 inch from the center. Fold the long edges in again then fold one of the halves onto the other half. The 1/2 gap you left keeps the center of the pasta sheet from stretching when you make that last fold.
• Slice the pasta into tagliatelle, an eighth to a quarter inch wide. I like thinner rather than wider, myself.
• Grab a handful of the rolled up pasta and shake to unroll. Place on a plate in loose piles. Don't stack too high else the pasta will stick together. This can be covered and refrigerated for a day or two, I think, if you're preparing a dinner ahead of time.
• Ready to cook! Add the pasta to boiling, well salted water. Don't cook too much at one time as the water needs to circulate freely around the pasta. Unlike boxed pasta, this cooks in just a few minutes. When it floats to the top of the water, scoop out with a sieve or large slotted spoon and serve with your favorite sauce. Repeat until done.