Learning how to make fresh pasta from scratch

A big food trend sweeping the country: making your own pasta. Home cooks, who are beginners, can master the technique. Even a child can do it. So I decided to get a lesson from Chef Carmine di Giovanni, owner of the Italian restaurant Aunt Jake's on Mulberry Street in Little Italy.

First, the dough. There are lots of ways to vary it, but the base is usually a simple combination of eggs and flour.  It gets mixed and then rolled into a ball. The fun part is what you do with it.

Every night there are usually 10 handmade pastas on the menu. You can mix it up, by choosing your pasta, then your sauce of choice.

There's even pasta with beets, and squid ink. Chef carmine uses a machine to make cavatelli. You load the dough and twist away.

Then we move on to the garganelli. The egg in this pasta, keeps it from unrolling once it's cooked. And another tip, sprinkling semolina on the pasta dough makes it easier to handle.

With a few ingredients and a little practice, you can make your own pasta. And if it doesn't work out, you can always come to Aunt Jake's for dinner and a show.