For a long time, I used to get super excited when I saw handmade pasta on a menu because it was a sign that the restaurant was really fancy and the food was going to be good. Then MrFodder and I went to Florence and signed up for a pasta cooking class. Handmade pasta has never looked the same since - though I still find it delicious. I don't know how to make fancy shapes like penne, farfalle or anything like that. They only taught us how to make linguine, fettuccine, tagliatelle, pappardelle, lasagne and ravioli. They pretty much all involve rolling out a sheet of pasta dough, folding it, and cutting it to different widths (or in the case of lasagne, not cutting it at all).
If you want to impress someone, but you don't want to put in much effort, I think making your own pasta is the way to go. All you need is 1/2 cup of pasta flour ('00' flour, which you should be able to find at your local Coles / Woolworths, it's a very fine grain flour), 1 egg, a fork, some plastic wrap, and a rolling pin (and a knife if you are cutting it into strands). This is about 2 people's worth of pasta if you have decently chunky sauce.
Make a mound of flour, and while holding all the fingers together on one hand to make a point, press into the centre of the mound and swirl your hand in a small circle, slowly getting larger, in order to make a well in your flour. Crack the egg in the middle.
Using a fork, slowly beat the egg, gradually incorporating the flour from the wall.
Keep going with the fork until it starts to clump together and isn't as sticky. With one hand, scrape the dough from the fork, and slowly knead the dough until it comes together in a smooth ball (you may need a bit more flour if it's still sticky to touch. How much flour you end up using depends on the size of your egg, and the humidity of your kitchen.). Don't over-knead it, because you don't want the dough to become too springy, otherwise it'll be a pain in the ass to roll out!
Lightly coat the ball with flour, and tightly wrap with plastic wrap. Leave for 20 minutes so that the gluten can relax.
Roll out the dough into a flat sheet. If you're going to cut it, it's easier to cut if you fold it over itself a few times. That way you only need to make a small cut to get nice straight strands. If making ravioli, you can get special cutters, but you can just cut your pasta sheet into rectangles, add the filling and fold it over, using a fork to seal the edges.
To cook, just cook like regular pasta, though I've found it cooks a lot faster.
Obviously it'll be much prettier coming out of a pasta machine, but I like the misshapen look (it's the hipster way of saying, "I made this myself!"). I don't know how well this stores in the fridge uncooked, as the last time I did it, there were black spots in the dough the next day. Not sure if that was just something I kneaded into the dough, or if something bad was growing in it. Now I just cook it after making it, and since it's so simple to do, you can make it while the sauce is simmering!
Even though I know how easy it is to make, I still get impressed by handmade pasta. And as I mentioned in another post, I like how I can shape it however I want, which makes it easier to make a lasagna (the pre-made sheets never seem to fit my baking dishes perfectly).
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