We started by clearing everything off the kitchen table. Elizabeth measured two and a half cups of all-purpose flour, half a cup of semolina flour, and a bit of salt into a pile on the table, and made a well in the middle. I cracked three eggs into the well, and mixed it together with one hand while using the other to keep the well-shape more or less intact around the eggy mixture. When the dough had taken in all the flour that it could, Elizabeth set the ball aside to rest while we cracked one more egg into the well, which had been re-formed from the remaining flour. By the time it, too, had taken in all the flour that it could, the other ball of dough had rested enough that if you poked it, it bounced back.
Matt clamped the pasta maker onto the table. Elizabeth took a small handful of dough, patted it down with some of the leftover flour, and ran it through the rollers on the widest setting. Pat down with flour, fold in thirds width-wise, repeat. This step continued until the dough felt right - not too soft, but not completely dry and lifeless either. Then the pasta maker was cranked down a notch, and we ran the dough through it twice. We ran it through twice on each setting until we came to the narrowest, patting on more flour whenever it felt too soft and sticky. Before going through the rollers on the narrowest setting, we divided the sheet of dough in half so that the pasta wouldn't be too long. Then the dough went through two more times, and it was time to cut.
The pasta dough ran through the wide fettuccine blades easily, and Elizabeth caught the pasta as it came out to keep it from sticking and tangling together. We laid it out to dry on a section of table generously dusted with semolina flour, and began putting the next section of dough through the machine.
In just a little over an hour, we had a lot of pasta.
