Vero's pasta fresca (fresh egg pasta)

Ingredients

• 1 egg (per person)
• 70 g (1/2 cup) all-purpose flour, ideally Italian tipo 00
• 30 g (3 tbsp) semolina (durum wheat)
• Nettle, for green pasta (optional): a small handful of young leaves, about 30 g, per egg
• Extra semolina or flour, for the board

Method

1. For green pasta (optional): wearing gloves, blanch the nettle leaves in boiling salted water for 1 minute, cool them in cold water, squeeze them completely dry in a towel and chop them as fine as a paste.
2. Make the well: mix the two flours on a wooden board, heap them and make a wide well in the middle. Crack in the egg (and the nettle, if using).
3. Beat the egg with a fork, drawing flour from the inside wall of the well a little at a time until it's too thick to stir.
4. Knead with the heel of your hand, folding and turning, for 8 to 10 minutes, until the dough is smooth, firm and springs back when pressed. Too sticky: a pinch of flour. Too dry and cracking: wet your hands.
5. Rest: wrap the dough and leave it at room temperature for 30 minutes so it relaxes and rolls out easily.
6. Roll the sfoglia: on the lightly floured board, roll from the center outward with a long wooden pin (a mattarello), turning the sheet a quarter turn each time, until it is thin enough to see the grain of the board through it, about 1 mm. A pasta machine works too: go down to the second-thinnest setting.
7. Dry for 5 to 10 minutes, until the sheet feels like leather, not wet and not brittle. Dust with semolina, roll it up loosely and cut across into ribbons: 7 to 8 mm for tagliatelle. Shake them loose and twist into nests.
8. Cook in plenty of well-salted boiling water for 2 to 3 minutes, until tender with a little bite. Toss with Vero's ragù, or butter and sage.