If you have boxer's arms and a hefty rolling pin, making your own pasta can be done entirely by hand. Or, a hand-cranked pasta machine will make much lighter work of it. Simply position the distance between the machine's rollers to the widest setting and feed the dough through. Do this several times, folding and turning the dough at each pass through the rollers. When the dough is uniformly smooth, adjust the notch down to the next setting and repeat the process again. Continue until the notch is at its narrowest setting.

Bit by bit, your dough will be transformed into smooth paper-thin sheets. The secret is in the gradual stretching and thinning, so don't be tempted to skip a notch.

Once the sheets have dried slightly, they are ready to use for lasagne or stuffed pasta such as ravioli and tortelloni. Alternatively, use the cutters to make long shapes, such as tagliatelle or linguine.

Construction

Choose a machine that has sturdy clamps for fixing it to the worktop, and that feels slightly weighty; it will be more stable. Since the rolling and thinning process must be done gradually, there should be at least nine notches for adjusting the width between the rollers. There should also be two widths of cutters. If these are not an integral part of the machine, make sure they clamp firmly to the base.

Some machines have 10cm wide rollers; others are 15cm. The wider the roller, the less hand-rolling needs to be done.