Homemade Spinach Fettuccine

Place spinach in a medium bowl and cover with boiling water. Stand for 1 minute or until wilted. Drain well and finely chop.

Place flour on a clean work surface and make a well in the centre. Crack eggs into the well. Add a pinch of cooking salt. Lightly mix eggs together with a fork. Add oil and spinach to egg then, using your fingertips, gradually combine egg mixture with flour until pieces of dough form. Press the pieces of dough together until they form a smooth ball.

Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes or until smooth and silky. Divide dough into 2 portions and enclose both in baking paper. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Attach a pasta machine to work surface and adjust machine's rollers to the widest setting. Unwrap 1 portion of dough and use the palm of your hands to flatten into a rectangle. Dust rollers with flour and roll through dough portion. Fold in shorter sides of dough portion to meet in the centre to form a smaller rectangle and feed through machine again. Repeat process 6 times or until pasta is smooth. Reduce roller width setting by 1 and roll through dough portion. Repeat process, reducing the setting each time, until dough is 1-1.5mm thick. Spread pasta sheets, in a single layer, on clean tea towels.

Repeat step 4 with remaining dough portion. Set pasta sheets aside for 15 minutes to dry. You want the pasta pliable but not so dry that it will crack.

To cut pasta into fettuccine by hand, loosely roll up a pasta sheet starting from the shortest end. Trim ends and discard. Use a sharp knife to cut pasta crossways at 5mm intervals. Unroll pasta.

To cut pasta into fettuccine using the pasta machine, attach fettuccine cutting attachment to machine and feed pasta sheets, one at a time, through attachment.