I did get a pasta maker for Christmas, so we had homemade pasta on New Year's eve. It's the third time I've made fresh pasta, including the class I took, and I'm beginning to be convinced that it wasn't just beginner's luck; it is very easy to do, and somewhat difficult to mess up.

The recipe I use is 2 1/2 cups flour in a bowl, then you break up three eggs and mix it with some salt in a smaller bowl. Pour the eggs into a well in the center of the flour, then use a fork to incorporate the eggs and flour. Knead for a few minutes, then wrap in plastic and put it in the fridge for at least half an hour to relax (it's much easier to roll out that way).

Meanwhile I sauteed some Italian sausage and garlic and added some tomatoes and oregano. Let that bubble while I filled the Dutch oven with water, put it over heat to come to a boil, and rolled out the pasta.

To use the machine, I cut the dough in quarters, then flatten a quarter into a long oval. Feed it through the machine on 1 first, maybe a couple of times, then progress up through all the settings, running the dough through each setting at least once. When we reached setting 5 (my machine goes to 9), we put it through the linguine setting. It takes about 3 minutes to cook. I had to boil it in two batches, removing the first batch from the water and putting it into the pan with the sausage and tomatoes (so it could soak up all the tomato juices, although I'm not sure fresh pasta soaks up sauce like dried does).

It was good stuff. The noodles were really long, which reminded me that for Chinese New Year (I think) people eat long noodles, maybe for longevity? That's the story I'm going with for my extra-long linguine on New Year's eve. Maybe it'll be a new tradition. It took three of us to make the noodles (although I think you could do it alone).