Most of us remember back to our student days, where pasta was an absolute staple (and probably the extent of our culinary skill).  Now when I think of pasta, I think of the boring pasta-pesto dinners of my student budget.

Making pasta sounded like a good idea in principle but a tricky task in practice, until I came across Carluccio’s recipe for fresh egg pasta. It was easy to follow, and once you get to grips with making your own pasta you can experiment with different colours! For pasta verde (green pasta) you use well-drained puréed cooked spinach; for pasta purpurea (purple pasta) it’s beetroot juice. Pasta rossa (red pasta) needs tomato purée and for dramatic pasta neri (black pasta – who knew?!) you’ll need cuttlefish ink.

I surprised myself and had a lot of fun making my own, and the flavour was fantastic (worlds away from student cardboard pasta!) I’d say it could rival any authentic pasta Italiana I’ve ever tried. Why not give it a go and see what you think?

(Once you’ve made your pasta you can then put it to good use in some of these yummy recipes from Antonio Carluccio – have it with his Bolognese sauce or check out the tagliatelle with chicken livers. Welcome to la dolce vita!)

Briony, My Kitchen Table