Homemade noodles

I had to post this tutorial of how to make noodles...because tomorrow in our kids cooking class we will be making them. Face wrote the recipe in his cooking journal. It made me break a big toothy grin when I saw him write it out. Why? Because I knew it was a one on one class we had done together...and whole grain noodles where now a part of his wholesome upbringing. We made chicken noodle soup and homemade ravioli. I wanted my children to learn how to make noodles without a hand cranked pasta machine. Why? Well, let's just say for argument's sake, they ever where to want pasta, not have dry noodle...and not have a pasta crank? What then? Rice? No...not if I can arm them with the mental ammo to make a good noodle. Use the noodle to make the noodles (so to speak). Look at these noodles...

Whole Grain Noodle dough

yield about 16 oz of noodles

2 cups high quality well ground high protein wheat flour ( I grind my own from Hard white wheat so I know it's fresh). You can use semolina flour or bread flour will also work if you don't have whole wheat flour

3 eggs or 3/4 cup egg whites

1 tsp salt if desired. (I use my all purpose seasoning blend)

Directions:

Combine the flour and salt/seasoning. Dig a well in the flour and add the eggs.

With a fork, whisk the eggs into the flour forming a soft-batter type stuff, soft dough and then a nice rough dough.

Stir well. There may be a little flour left over that doesn't mix into the dough. make a rough ball out of the stuff that sticks together. I clear off my table top of any extra flour and funky dough. Lightly flour counter tops.

Knead the dough a few minutes until it gets well combined and a lot smoother. It will still look a little rough, but the whole wheat is just that way. Divide into two balls.

Take one of the balls of dough and roll it out on a well floured table top, about 1/2 inch thick and 2 feet long.

Fold dough into thirds like a travel brochure.

Roll out the dough again, on a well floured surface until it is about 3 feet long.

Repeat the folding step and roll one last time until it is very very thin, about 1/8 an inch or less. Mine is so thin you can almost see through it. A well floured table top will really help this process...but also some good muscles applying the pressure to the center of the rolling pin instead of the handles.
When rolled out, it is about 5 feet long.

With a sharp knife or pizza cutter, make the cuts for the noodles. Make sure you get through all of the dough and the noodles are about 1/4 inch wide and 12 inches long. Repeat the whole process with your second ball of dough.

Transfer the noodles to a drying rack and allow to air dry a few minutes. This is when I start my water boiling to cook noodles. If you want to allow them to air dry a few hours that works as well.

Bring a gallon of water to a rolling boil. Add plenty of salt to the water. Put the noodles in all at once and cook 2-4 minutes (depending on how long you let them dry). Drain and lightly drizzle with olive oil. Season as desired. Top with sauce or serve with cooked sausage, olives, tomatoes, cheese...whatever you love.

Spinach noodles: Use 1/2 cup thick spinach puree and 1/4 cup egg in the batter

Herb noodles: Use ground or fine minced herbs in the dough (about 1 tsp dry or 1T fresh)

Lemon pepper: Use zest of one lemon and 1/2 tsp fresh cracked pepper in the dough

Sun dried tomato: Use 3T Sun dried tomato pesto in the dough

Pink pasta: Add 1/2 cup beet juice and 1/4 cup egg to the dough in place of the straight egg

There you go.