Fresh Pasta

1. Tip the pasta flour onto a clean work surface and sprinkle with the salt. Make a well in the center of the flour. Beat the eggs and olive oil together and pour 2/3 of the mixture into the well. Gradually draw the flour into the eggs, mixing steadily to make a course paste. Add more of the egg mixture as needed. Keep working the dough with your hands, gradually bringing it together to form a ball. 2. Knead for 10 minutes, or until the dough is very smooth and elastic. When it's silky smooth, shape it into a ball. Wrap tightly with cling film and leave it to rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. 3. When ready to roll the dough, cut it into manageable portions and work with one at a time, keeping the rest covered. Dust the work surface lightly with flour. Using a rolling pin, roll your first piece of dough out into a rectangular shape. Then fold it in three, as you would a letter, with the shortest side small enough to be fed through the opening in the pasta machine. With the machine on its widest setting, slowly guide the dough through it, cranking the handle to feed it in. Do not try and force the dough through the machine, or pull it out on the other side. Once the pasta sheet has come through, fold it in 3 again and run it through the same wide setting for a second time. Then decrease the setting by one notch and feed through again, but this time without first folding the dough. Repeat using the same setting. 4. Decrease the setting on the pasta machine again by one notch and repeat the double rolling process, using your hands to support the pasta sheet so that it does not tear as it lengthens. If the pasta begins to stick, dust it lightly with flour, but be careful not to use too much. Continue rolling pasta through the machine, gradually decreasing the setting, notch by notch and running the the dough through the machine twice on each setting. Dust it lightly with flour whenever it seems as if it might stick. When the dough is very thin (about 1-2cm) and silky, lay it over the work surface and cut it into pieces about 25 cm long. Dust the cut pasta with semolina to prevent sticking. Once dusted, pasta can be left for up to 24 hours before cooking.