Like any good Italian, my mother, Victoria Perritano, made her first batch of pasta dough as young bride newly married to her Italian groom. She learned the technique from her mother, my grandmother. Pasta making has been a technique and tradition lovingly passed down in Italian families for generations. In fact, renowned chef, restaurateur and cookbook author Mario Batali credits watching his grandmother make pasta for much of his current success.

"My grandma made fresh ravioli or gnocchi every single time we visited her for Sunday supper from my birth until her passing," Batali says in an email. "It was phenomenal and truly defined who I am as an Italian American, as a grandson, as a son, and as a father and a husband."