Pasta Dough

280g of flour and 2 eggs + 2 egg yolks (big eggs). My tips: My Mum and Dad have been told that there is a flimsy food labelling of cage and free range eggs in Australia and we have paid top dollar for years for an 'free range egg' that is produced in circumstances close to the cage eggs. As a result we are using cage eggs until Australia sorts this out. The cage eggs are not as good for making dough as the 'fair dinkum' free range eggs that my Nanny bought in New Zealand. Come on Australia - sort it out!

The following method is written by Nick Nairn and is directly lifted from

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/freshpastadough_3067.shtml .

Nick's method never fails me and I make fresh pasta at least once a week.

Nick Nairn says

'1. Place the flour in a food processor and pulse it. Add the whole egg and egg yolk and keep whizzing until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs (it shouldn't be dusty, nor should it be a big, gooey ball). This takes 2-3 minutes.
2. Tip out the dough and knead to form into a ball shape. Knead it briskly for 1 minute, it should be quite stiff and hard to knead. Wrap in cling film and leave to rest in a cool place for 1 hour before using.
3. Now cut the dough into 2 pieces. For each piece, flatten with a rolling pin to about 5mm/¼ in) thickness. Fold over the dough and pass it through the pasta machine at its widest setting, refolding and rolling 7 times (not changing the setting) until you have a rectangular shape 7.5x18cm/3x7 in. It is important to work the dough until it is nice and shiny, as this gives it the "al dente" texture. Repeat with the second piece of dough.
4. Now you are ready to roll out. Start with the pasta machine at its widest setting, pass the dough through the rollers. Do not fold but repeat this process, decreasing the roller setting down grade by grade with each pass. For most uses, I take the pasta down to the penultimate setting - especially for ravioli, as you are sandwiching two layers together when it is folded. Use straight away to make the ravioli.'

My tips: you may look at the dough and think that it is dry, do not be tempted (as Mum was) to add more fluid. Just wrap it in the cling film

and leave it for an hour - trust me! Better too dry than too soggy.

Pasta Sauce

1 tablespoon at least of olive oil, 1 onion, 1 garlic clove and fresh basil then when soft add

zucchini or another vege if you would like more veges then add

Then a couple of cans of tomato sauce and a tablespoon of puree.

I love a tablespoon or two of brown sugar balanced with balsamic vinegar (a tablespoon or two).

Cook for as long as you can, at least two hours slowly and barely simmering.

Season to taste.