• Pile the flour on the kitchen bench, then make a well in the middle of it. Add the pinch of salt, then crack the eggs into the middle of the well.
• Start mixing the egg into the flour with a fork.  As the dough starts to stick together, start kneading it with your hands.  If the dough is very dry and flakey (if your eggs are smaller this may happen), add water 1 tablespoon at a time, and continue to knead.  Now this is the arduous part: knead the dough for 15 -20 minutes until it becomes smooth and elastic (this is the bit to get your kids involved in!).
• Once it looks like the photo above, wrap it in plastic wrap and leave it to rest for 30 minutes. (This is the point at which you need to sit down and have a nice cup of tea or coffee).
• If you have a pasta machine, now is the time to pull it out of the cupboard.  If not, grab a rolling pin! Prepare a cookie tray by sprinkling flour on it.

With a machine

• Break off parts of the dough.  Keep the rest well wrapped so that it doesn't dry out. Start feeding the dough through the machine (or rolling it out) at the widest setting.  Fold the dough in half and feed it through again.  Then, move to the next setting down and repeat the process.  The thicknesses run from "6" to "1". I  usually stop at thickness "2".  Sprinkle flour on the dough if it starts to stick.

Without a machine

• Sprinkle flour on the bench-top. Break the dough in half. Cover the one half again, and roll out the other half of the dough, turning it every so often so that it doesn't stick, and sprinkle it with flour every now and then. Keep rolling until you have a thin sheet. After cutting up the sheet into your desired shapes, roll out the other half.
• When the dough is a long smooth sheet, you can cut it in any shape you like.  If you have a pasta machine with a attachment, it's easy to make tagliatelle.  I like making "maltagliati" ("badly cut") pasta.  To do this, you lie the dough strip on the kitchen bench, then using a pizza cutter, or a sharp knife, cut the dough into random shapes.
• When the shapes are cut, lie them carefully on the prepared cookie sheet and sprinkle with more flour.
• Cover the pasta with a tea-towel and continue the process with the dough that has not been used yet.   It is best if you use the pasta the same day that it is made.  It should be kept in the fridge until you want to cook it.