Homemade Noodles

I have always liked to make noodles. I played around a tiny bit with it when we lived in Arkansas, but not very much. So I did some research on the handy thing called the internet and found a new recipe and some new techniques. Then on Monday and Tuesday of this week I gave it a try! I had so much fun making these! And they tasted good too!

Here is what I did and the recipe that I used:

2 1/2 cups flour

a good pinch of salt

1/2 cup milk

2 eggs, well beaten

1 TBS butter

Mix together flour and salt. Make well in flour and add milk, egg and butter. Mix until you can knead it. Turn it out onto cabinet (or where you will be kneading it).

Dough will be very crumbly but keep kneading it and it will get smooth.

It will take about 5 min to form into a nice ball. You may have to add a bit of water/more milk...tiny bits at a time.

Now, it's waiting time! Put dough in a clean bowl and cover with a cloth for at least 30 min. I let mine go an hour and it worked great!

Then (now that waiting time is over), divide dough into four parts and leave 3 in the bowl covered with the towel.

Coat one slightly flattened piece in flour.

Then start rolling. It will take a good bit of work (mostly patience) to get it very thin. I got mine as thin as I could.

Hold the piece up to the light every so often to check for thicker parts. (They will be darker). You will not have to add much flour as you roll if your dough is the right consistency. Use your best judgement on this.

After that piece is rolled to your satisfaction, place it on a towel and let it dry a bit as you roll out another one.

Once the second one is rolled out, trade it out for the first one. Dust the first one with flour and roll up into a log.

Now. with a very sharp knife, cut it in slices of desired width.

Carefully unroll the slices....

and hang to dry. I used a clean plastic hanger. You can use a professional pasta rack (if you have one) or a broom stick (clean of course!) propped on two chairs...or anything else you deem worthy of drying your pasta.

Once you have hung all that, roll into a log and cut the second one. Then, start all over with the two pieces that are left. Warning: this part can take a good hour or so. (But it's worth the yummy results!)

Once it is all rolled, cut, and hung, let dry until it is hard...about 4 hours.

Then place in bag and freeze until ready to use. You can also use it fresh without letting it dry completely. One batch makes about 1lb of dry pasta.

I hope you have as much fun making this as I did! I will be making more, as we all liked it very well! My next try-out will be flavored pasta!

Questions? Comments? Let me know!

Have fun!