• Pasta has a long and somewhat unclear history. While legend holds that Marco Polo brought the basic idea of pasta-making from China to Europe, people have apparently enjoyed pasta long before the 12th century.Brandeis University: Introduction: A Brief Historical Geography of Pasta (August 2008) Today, pasta is part of numerous cuisines, and scores of people across the world enjoy it in its many wonderful forms from lasagna to ramen. While grocery stores and food specialty shops contain many types of prepared pasta, making your own fresh pasta is delicious and easy. This guide to How to Make Pasta will help you create your own pasta noodles, perfect for serving with your favorite marinara or Alfredo sauce.

Pasta dough is relatively easy to make, but rolling out and shaping the pasta noodles is more complex. A pasta machine gives even, consistent results, but you can roll the noodles out and shape by hand if you don't have a machine.

• You can mix the pasta dough together in a food processor or a mixer with the dough hook attached if you like.Recipetips.com: Making Homemade Pasta However, these devices are not crucial to making pasta dough. Handmaking pasta dough is not difficult. If you know how to make bread, you will find that making pasta is a snap.

1. Pile the flour in a mound on the countertop.
   • -Don't want a messy countertop? Use a bowl.
2. Make a deep well in the center of the flour.Food Network: Boiled Spaghetti Recipe
3. Break the eggs into this well.Martha Stewart: Fresh Pasta
4. Add the salt.
5. With the fork, gently start pushing flour into the eggs and mixing them together so that the eggs and flour blend.Allrecipes.com: Fresh Pasta
6. Mix together until the dough forms a firm, solid ball that is resilient.Allrecipes.com: Fresh Pasta
7. The dough should be in a solid, firm ball that is not sticky. Add more flour if it is too wet.

• YouTube: Fresh Pasta (Time: 6:07)

1. Put the flour and salt in the food processor or mixer with a dough hook attached.
2. Beat the eggs together.
3. Add eggs and process the dough until it forms a ball that leaves the side of the container.Recipetips.com: Making Homemade Pasta

• YouTube: Making Pasta Dough (Time: 1:32)

• Kneading is important to pasta because kneading breaks down the gluten in the flour.Allrecipes: Fresh Pasta Kneading gives pasta dough the proper texture, so be sure not to skip it! Use the same kneading method you would for bread and work the dough until it is satiny and smooth.

1. Knead this dough about eight minutes or so.Epicurious: Fresh Taglierini Pasta
2. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap.
3. Let it sit for at least thirty minutes to allow the gluten to develop.Food Network: Boiled Spaghetti Recipe

• A pasta machine will allow you to roll the pasta out evenly and easily. However, people in past centuries have made pasta without the assistance of a machine, so it is not vital that you have one. Do make sure to cut the pasta evenly so that your batch of pasta cooks consistently.

• It is important to cook pasta in plenty of water. A quarter pound of pasta should be boiled in at least a quart of water.Allrecipes.com: Pasta Cooking After being cooked, fresh pasta will not be as firm as cooked dried pasta, so cook it until it is tender and to your liking.Recipetips.com: Checking Doneness of Pasta Fresh pasta cooks much more rapidly than dried pasta, so you need to supervise it carefully while it is boiling.Recipetips.com: Pasta Tips and Techniques

1. Bring four quarts of lightly salted water to boil.
2. When the water has boiled, add the noodles.
3. It usually takes only four minutes or less for fresh pasta to cook, so don't walk away from it.Recipetips.com: Checking Doneness of Pasta
4. A minute or so after the pasta has risen to the top of the water, test a piece to see if it has cooked to your liking.Recipetips.com: Pasta Tips and Techniques
5. Drain pasta and serve with your favorite sauce.

• With this handy How to Make Pasta guide, you won't ever have to face a pasta shortage in your kitchen again. If you forgot to buy dried pasta during your last food shopping trip or you had more guests over for spaghetti than you bargained for, don't worry! Simply reach for some flour and eggs and make a batch of fresh homemade pasta. Watch as ordinary Chicken Alfredo or lasagna come alive with the addition of fresh pasta.AllRecipes: Chicken Alfredo