Tools

Few, but particular tools are needed to prepare the home-made pasta.
It's mandatory to have a rolling board (called spianatoia), which is a plank, preferably of fir-wood, wide enough and quite smooth. The marble (or formica) top of the table is an expedient, but the rolling board is the ideal tool, because, among the other things, the wood soaks up the excessive humidity of the dough.
There is, then, the rolling-pin (mattarello); it's a long stick (3 or 5 feet long), preferably made of cherry-wood, with a perfectly cylindrical shape; it's necessary either for spreading the sheet of pasta dough (sfoglia) , or for wrapping and turning it on the board.
An iron broad, rather short, flexible spatula (spatola) is needed for collecting the dough and for scratching the rolling-board; a notched little wheel (rotellina dentellata) and a broad-bladed knife (coltella) is needed for cutting the sheet of pasta dough into the various formats.
Today people, who has no enough time for cooking, can use kneading machines, electric or with winch, either to prepare the dough or to cut the sfoglia.
However, the fact is that the best home-made pasta is obtained only using ... elbow-grease!!!