Shiny and glittering, it is an inexpensive pasta machine that Jane picked up as a gift for me on an early morning expedition to the supermarket. Essentially just a pair of adjustable rollers for progressively squeezing the dough thinner and thinner, along with a couple of pairs of cutting rollers to produce either medium (tagliatelle) or small (spaghetti) strips.

I made up a batch tonight. Jamie Oliver recommends one egg per 100g of 00 (superfine) flour to produce a basic pasta dough (and 150g per person — we found that even 100g each was more than ample). It took more time to prepare than packet pasta and is more expensive than the cheaper dried varieties but it cooked quickly and was delicious with a little pesto and spinach.

I will definitely be flying this silver machine again and experimenting with how I can use it, such as whether the superfine flour makes enough of a difference to make it worthwhile compared to the cheapest plain white.