Homemade Pasta

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• ¼ cup water
• 1 tablespoon olive or vegetable oil

1. In medium bowl, mix flour and salt. Make a well in center of flour mixture. Add eggs, water and oil to well; mix thoroughly. (If dough is too dry, mix in enough water to make dough easy to handle. If dough is too sticky, gradually add flour when kneading.)
2. Gather dough into a ball. On lightly floured surface, knead 5 to 10 minutes or until smooth and springy. Cover with plastic wrap or foil; let stand 15 minutes.
3. Divide dough into 4 equal parts. On lightly floured surface, roll one-fourth of dough at a time (keep remaining dough covered) into rectangle, 1/16 to ⅛ inch thick (if using a handcrank pasta machine, pass dough through machine until 1/16 inch thick*). Loosely fold rectangle lengthwise into thirds. Cut crosswise into 2-inch strips for lasagna, ¼-inch strips for fettuccine or ⅛-inch strips for linguine. Unfold and gently shake out strips. Hang pasta on pasta drying rack, or arrange in single layer on lightly floured towels; let stand 30 minutes or until dry.
4. In 6- to 8-quart Dutch oven or saucepan, heat 4 quarts water (salted if desired) to boiling; add pasta. Boil uncovered 2 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until firm but tender. Begin testing for doneness when pasta rises to surface of water; drain.