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Pasta holds a special place in our memories of childhood. Even if you didn’t grow up Italian, chances are you remember eating long strands of spaghetti and slurping up the sauce as you went. Pasta is made of simple ingredients: flour, eggs, olive oil and water. Don’t let the simplicity of the ingredients fool you into thinking that commercially made pasta is no different from homemade. Homemade pasta is true comfort food and easy to make. In our house, the making of pasta becomes a collaboration. There is something for everyone to do, no matter how young or how old. And the fruits of our labors end up in a wonderful family dinner that we all enjoy together.

A pasta machine is one of the tools that makes the job of turning dough into noodles easier. You can do it the old fashioned way and roll your dough into thin sheets using a wooden rolling pin, but I find that a uniform thickness is best achieved using a machine. There are electric machines and there are manual machines that you crank by hand. Weston, Lello and Imperia pasta machines are well known brands of electric pasta makers. The Kitchenaid pasta attachment is an wonderful addition to the Kitchenaid mixer for making pasta. Atlas, Imperia and CucinaPro are all good manufacturers of manual pasta makers. I personally have used the Atlas pasta machine for many years with absolutely delicious results.

If you are going to mix the dough by hand, start by placing the flour in a large bowl and make a well in the center. Crack the eggs into a smaller bowl and beat them lightly to break the yolks. Add the oil and water and mix well before pouring the liquids into the well in the center of the flour. Continue to mix with a fork or a wooden spoon until the dry ingredients are moistened and begin to clump together. Now roll up your sleeves and get ready to get your hands on the dough to finish the mixing.

Dust your hands with flour and begin to gather the clumps and begin kneading the dough right in the bowl. Grab the mass over onto itself, pushing and turning and folding the dough until it no longer sticks to the side of the bowl. Once you have one cohesive clump of dough, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, a large wooden cutting board works great, and continue to knead for 2 to 3 minutes.

You are done kneading when the dough is soft throughout, you can’t feel any lumps, the surface has a sheen to it and it feels and looks smooth. If the dough seems too sticky add a little flour, a little at a time, while you are kneading. If the dough seems too dry or hard, sprinkle a little water on the dough and continue to knead it until it becomes soft and pliable. When you have finished kneading the dough, give it a rest by letting it sit on the board covered with a clean, soft kitchen towel for about 30 minutes. This will relax and soften the dough so it will be easier to roll out.

Divide your dough into quarters and work with one piece of dough at a time. The general idea is to start rolling the dough through the thickest setting on your pasta machine, gradually decreasing the setting to roll a thin sheet of pasta. If you are making raviolis you will place the filling on one sheet of pasta, cover it with a second sheet and then use a pastry wheel to cut between the ravioli squares. All pasta maker machines come with some attachments for cutting the pasta into other shapes like tagliatelle and tagliolini. Some of the electric ones will also provide an extruding attachment for making rounded shapes like spaghetti and capellini. You can even cut the sheets by hand into strips that are 1 1/2 inches wide, like papardelle.

After you have cut and shaped your pasta, the pasta needs to dry out a bit before it is cooked. Dry the pasta at room temperature on a lightly floured board or baking sheet. The flour helps keep the pieces of pasta from sticking to each other and helps seal the noodle. If you have made more pasta than you need for the meal you can freeze it on a baking sheet and then put the frozen pasta into freezer bags or containers for future use. If you just had a ravioli making party, you will be able to enjoy homemade raviolis any time. Pasta also dries well, although you will still want to cook it us within a couple of days because your dough does not have preservatives in it. Long pasta shapes can be dried in little nests or you can use a pasta drying rack, which allows you to dry the pasta as long threads.

Homemade pasta has a rich, delicate flavor and a softer texture than commercially processed pasta. It is made with fresh ingredients and they say that the good energy that goes into the making of the food you eat is healthier for you. Once you have eaten a dish or two of your own pasta and had the pleasure of making it with family or friends, you will realize that you want to make fresh pasta a regular event in your kitchen. Now that’s comfort food. Start your own family tradition of making pasta together and create some special family memories.

Making fresh pasta at home has been a Lauder family specialty for years. Family, friends and neighbors all play a role in making the dough and sitting at the table to savor the results. Watch a video on rolling dough through a pasta machine on Geri’s website, find great cookbooks and pick out a pasta machine for your next family pasta party.