Farfalle with Lemon Basil Alfredo

The only thing better than a bowl of cheesy pasta, is a bowl of cheesy, homemade pasta! If you've never made pasta from scratch before I totally recommend giving it a go with this recipe.

You might be thinking "I'm not a sweet little Italian woman - I have no idea how to make pasta!" Don't worry, I'll be your Italian grandmother stand-in in case you need to phone a friend.

What you'll love about this recipe:

• It's under 10 ingredients

• Creamy, but not too heavy

• Come on, everything's better with basil!

I know I'm gonna sound like Ina Garten when I say this next sentence; just take it for what it is:

While making fresh pasta is totally worth it, you can, of course, used already-made pasta (there are so many nice brands out there), in which case this recipe will only take you about 20-30 minutes!

While I haven't made pasta from scratch that many times before, I love when I do because I get to use the pasta sheet roller my godmother gave to me as a birthday gift probably 10+ years ago. It's a mental and emotional pairing I really enjoy - food I love, with people I love.

For the Lemon Basil Alfredo: (makes 4-5 servings with inclusion of pasta)

1 cup Heavy Cream

2 cups grated Parmesan (don't use Kraft - the sauce won't meld as well)

1 1/2 tsp Lemon Zest

1-2 T julienned Basil (plus extra for garnish)

Fresh cracked Black Pepper, to taste

1. In a saucepan bring cream to a boil over medium heat. Once cream is boiling, turn heat down to lowest setting and stir in cheese until fully melted and incorporated.

2. Once cheese and cream are fully mixed together, add lemon zest, basil, and black pepper)

3. Toss with pasta and garnish with basil.

For the Pasta Dough: (I only cooked half of the pasta dough for the above ratio of sauce)

3 - 3 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour

4 Eggs

1/2 tsp Olive Oil

1. Right onto your counter top, make a pile of your flour; then, into that pile, make a well with your hand (large enough to hold your 4 eggs)

2. Into the well of flour, crack your eggs, and add in the olive oil; beat these two ingredients together with a fork, in the middle of the well.

3. Once the eggs are beaten, use your fork to slowly drag in flour from the inside of the well, as you continue to move the fork around in circular motions. Gradually keep dragging more and more flour into the center of the well, until half of your flour has been incorporated, and the dough is starting to come together.

4. Once the dough starts to come together, scrape it up from the countertop and begin kneading to incorporate the rest of the flour.* Then knead for 6 additional minutes. The dough should be elastic and just slightly sticky.

5. Wrap the ball of dough in plastic wrap and let rest on the counter for 30 minutes before rolling out and shaping.

*When I made my farfalle I used 3 1/2 cups of flour, but didn't end up working it all into my ball of dough - would have been far too dry if I had, so I probably had about 1/4 to 1/3 cup of flour remaining on my countertop.

To Shape the Dough into Farfalle:

1. If using a pasta roller, cut the ball of dough in half (I only used half for 4 servings of farfalle), and then again into manageable pieces as needed, depending on the size of your pasta roller. Otherwise, roll out by hand with a rolling pin to desired thickness.*

2. To create farfalle it's best to work with a rectangular piece of dough. Orienting your strip of dough horizontally, use a fluted wheel to cut upwards along each short end.

3. Then, cut your piece of dough horizontally, all the way from left to right side, into 1-inch wide strips.

4. Taking your fluted wheel again, cut upwards across all of your strips of dough dividing them into about 5-8 small rectangles (depending on the length of your strips, and how long you want the farfalle).*

5. Then, handling one of these little rectangles at a time, fold and pinch the center of the dough as if you were making the capital letter "M." Then place onto a drying rack or baking sheet to let dry for 20 minutes.*

6. When ready to cook the pasta, simply bring a pot of water to boil, and cook for 2-5 minutes (depending on thickness of noodle).* Toss with sauce, and enjoy!

*I used a pasta roller which had a number range from 7 (thickest) to 1 (thinnest); I found my preferred thickness was at 2 (very thin and see-through, almost like tissue paper).

*I preferred my farfalle to be about 1 1/2 inches in length (they'll also expand when cooked).

* I found that letting the farfalle dry out partially before cooking helped them keep their shape, however if you overcook the pasta they will completely unfold.

*My final (and preferred) pasta which was rolled down to the "2" setting on my roller, only took 2 minutes to cook! Whereas the farfalle I had made with the setting "3" or "4" took about 4-5 minutes to cook.

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