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I make homemade pasta about once every other month or so. Wish I did more often, but it's mostly a question of remembering it, rather than the hassle. I've tried a few different recipes and haven't really noticed much difference in the results, but they are always awesome IF you like fresh pasta. My sister, for example, doesn't, and so the time and effort is wasted on her.

I resolve the time factor by making the pasta while I put on a movie. Nothing with subtitles. Generally the work of rolling and cutting is pretty manual, leaving me free to catch up on the movie.

The roller itself (I have a manual one) is not that large, so storage hasn't been an issue in my pretty small kitchen. I'd love the attachment for the kitchenaid, but it's kind of passed my budget.

If you're tempted to try rolling it with a rolling pin in lieu of adding a piece of equipment, don't be too discouraged. I tried that, and it was so exhausting and the results so unsatisfying; I have never regretted buying the machine (only $20 at Ross).

You can get a basic pasta rolling machine (hand crank) for $20 on Amazon.
http://www.amazon.com/Prime-Pacific-Stainless-Steel-Machine/dp/B000CH7BX0/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1215915923&sr=8-1

It's pretty small so it doesn't take up much space in the kitchen. You can actually keep homemade pasta quite simple. My wife and I made it for the first time a few months ago and have made it again many times since. We were amazed and how easy and quick it was compared to what we thought it'd take. Give it a shot, you'll either move on fast or be hooked entirely.

I love making fresh pasta...I've been making it since I was a kid and it's completely relaxing for me. Once you do it a few times, I think you get into a rhythm and it isn't as time consuming as you may think. I actually took one of the pasta machines from my parents and although I live in a tiny apartment, it barely takes up any space. When I was in college I didn't have the machine with me so I would roll the dough out which was unbelievably difficult (probably because I have barely any upper body strength and my rolling pin was a wine bottle). I definitely recommend getting a pasta machine. As you get the hang of it, you'll probably use it more than you anticipated. As others have mentioned, it's soo nice to have homemade raviolis stashed away in the freezer for those days when you dont feel like spending a lot of time in the kitchen since they only take minutes to cook and they feel like a special meal. Also, if you have unexpected guests, you can cook some up and your friends will think you are a genius!

I haven't made fresh pasta at all ...but I'm willing to try it because the love of my life (my 10 year-old son) loves pasta so much and I always want to prepare the best meals for him. Right now, I'm waiting for my 5 pound bag of pasta penne to empty. Then ...I will prepare this recipe I watched at the Martha Stewart show 3 weeks ago. There was a great chef there with this original recipe of hers ...so this is GOLD MATERIAL. It looked delicious ...and my son loves ravioli... so I'm all excited to prepare this recipe. I will include it here for you to try. Good Luck!!
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Raviolo with Egg Yolk Truffle Butter

From:

This recipe for raviolo with egg yolk truffle butter is courtesy of chef Odette Fada.

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Ingredients
Serves 4

1 bunch spinach, washed well and dried
3 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup fresh ricotta cheese
3 ounces freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
4 large egg yolks
Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
Freshly ground white pepper
Coarse salt
Pasta Dough
2 ounces white truffles, shaved (optional)
Directions
Place spinach in a steamer basket set over simmering water. Cook until spinach is wilted; drain. Heat butter in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add spinach and cook until coated with butter, about 2 minutes. Let cool completely.
Finely chop spinach and add to a medium bowl along with ricotta, and half the Parmesan cheese. Season with nutmeg, white pepper, and salt. Stir to combine. Transfer filling mixture to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch round plain tip; set aside.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Set the rollers of a hand-cranked or electric pasta machine at their widest opening. Flatten dough with the palms of your hands; dust lightly with flour. Roll dough through widest setting. Keep rolling dough through the machine on decreasing settings until you have rolled it through the first six settings. Cut dough in half crosswise.
Lay one piece of dough flat on work surface. Using a 2-inch round cutter, gently mark 4 circles in dough, about 5 inches apart. Using circle as a guide, pipe filling around each circle and continue piping to form a 1-inch high edge. Place 1 egg yolk in the center of each circle; season with salt and white pepper. Brush a little cold water around filling and gently place remaining piece of dough over filling and yolks to cover. Gently press edges together to seal, eliminating as much air as possible. Center a 4-inch fluted round cutter around filling and cut each raviolo.
Add salt to boiling water and return to boil. Gently transfer ravioli to boiling water and cook for 2 minutes. Meanwhile, place butter in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook until melted and lightly browned. Drain ravioli and divide among 4 serving plates. Pour over browned butter and garnish with remaining cheese and shaved truffles, if desired.

If you have a kitchenaid stand mixer, I highly recomend buying the pasta roller. It's small and takes all the hard work out of homemade pasta. I use Mario's method only because i've seen him do it on molto about a million times.

I'm glad to see this thread, since my wife and I made pasta for the first time last night, after buying a traditional roller atlas pasta machine. We went to Babbo for the first time on Friday night and it inspired us. The results were great and well worth the effort, and the machine itself is much smaller than I thought it would be and is easy to store in a small space. Maybe you more experienced pasta-makers can help me with a couple of questions I have:

I know you can freeze the finished products that you make, but can you freeze or refrigerate the dough itself for any length of time and have the results still be good?

If i were to freeze it, what should I do to defrost it? Should I leave it out at room temp, or should it be more gently defrosted in the fridge?

I use the pasta attachment for my Kitchen Aid stand mixer about once a week--it was well worth the investment and makes making fresh pasta so fast that it's almost mindless. I use a simple recipe from the Italian bible, aka the Silver Spoon. 1 1/2 cups flour (I use Italian 00, but AP works too), a pinch of salt and two lightly beaten eggs. I don't have much counter space so I've ditched the well method and have moved on to the paddle attachment on my mixer just until the dough comes together, then I knead it with the dough hook for 10 minutes. Then I let it rest for 15 minutes and start rolling. If you don't have a mixer, you can make pasta by hand, with a cutting board and a rolling pin. Just as easy, just a little more time-consuming. And the best part? For $10 I can make fresh ricotta and enough ravioli to feed 6 people. You can't buy anything as good for that price.

When I was a kid I helped my dad make fresh pasta. I was scarred for life. I'd definitely have to watch someone do it to decide if I wanted to try myself. Generally, rolling stuff out is on my list of things I avoid in recipes. *shudder*

@empath, the only pastas I freeze are the filled ones, and I just cook them from the frozen state. I think if you try thawing first, they'd sweat and then stick together.

Hmm...actually, I also will freeze gnocchi when I make that. But for stranded noodles, it's such a fast process, I don't see any reason to make so much of it that I'd want to freeze it.

Homemade pasta is so worth it. I do everything with the KitchenAid:

http://nujoikitchendiary.blogspot.com/2008/01/channeling-lidia.html