Homemade Egg Noodles

Homemade pasta is easy, cheap, and tastes at least as good as what you can get from a box. There are many different recipes to tell you how to make noodles. You can use different flours such as all purpose, wheat, semolina, buckwheat, rice, or just about anything. You can use liquids including water, eggs, milk, oils, broth, vinegar, and many others. You can add colors by blending fruits, vegetables or spices into the liquids. With practice you could learn to change the recipe you are using to alter the taste, texture or color of your pasta.

My favorite homemade noodle is an egg noodle and our preferred shape is called tagliatelle. The actual shape changes with recipe but these wide, hand-cut noodles are the jack of all trades in many kitchens. The recipe is very easy. Each batch of noodles serves two or more people depending on how you use your pasta. If you are making a light sauce, you may need more pasta than if you are making a hearty sauce or something with lots of roasted vegetables.

The reason I prefer the egg noodles is because of the texture of the noodle, the color, and the fact that egg noodles always seem more filling. The recipe is simple. Every batch requires:

1 egg

1/2 cup flour. All purpose flour works but I prefer semolina flour. I've also used bread flour or fresh ground wheat flour.

That's it for ingredients. Simply put that ratio in a food processor for every 2 people you plan to feed and stop processing when your mixture starts to form a ball. If it looks too crumbly, add a tablespoon of water. If it is too sticky, add a little more flour. Keep doing this until you can easily knead it into a ball. At that point put it in a bag and put the pasta in the refrigerator if dinner isn't for a few hours or in bowl with a towel over it if you plan to use it soon. Let it rest at least 1 hour before using it.

Once it has rested for a bit it is time to roll out the pasta. You can do this by hand with a rolling pin or you can get a pasta machine. Follow the instructions to set up the machine and start working on your pasta. It may crumble a bit at first but just keep putting it back together and running it through. In time it will work. You may have to cut your pasta ball in half to make it easier to work with.

Once you can get the pasta through the machine easily on the first setting fold the pasta in thirds and run it through the machine on that setting 3-5 times. If your pasta starts to get sticky simply rub a little flour on both sides and keep going. Now keep running it through the machine and change the size by 1 setting every time. My machine goes from 1 to 9. For tagliatelle I aim to stop at 7. Thick noodles that taste great in chicken noodle soup are great at about 5. Angel hair is 8 or 9. Spaghetti is also 7.

Your machine may have an attachment that also cuts the pasta. If so you can do that. Wider pastas work best in lighter sauces. I prefer to cut mine by hand. To do this repeatedly fold the sheet of pasta over itself every 6-12". Be sure to thoroughly flour between layers of pasta so they do not stick together. I then use a long, sharp knife to cut the pasta into strips about 1/4" thick. After all of the pasta is cut I use my hands to gently mix in some more flour to be sure it does not stick to itself.

Bring 3 or 4 quarts of water to a boil in a fairly large pot. Homemade pasta tends to boil over more easily than store bought. When cooking any pasta be sure to salt the water heavily. Use a few handfuls of salt for a pot of pasta water and add a couple tablespoons of olive oil for flavor. When the water is boiling, add the noodles and stir vigorously for the first 15-30 seconds. After 1 minute, taste the pasta. Taste it again every 30 seconds until it tastes cooked. When it is done it will not be quite as chewy or taste like flour. This usually takes 2-4 minutes. Armed with this basic information you can make many shapes. For bowties, cut 2" strips and twist once or twice then let it dry for a few hours. Lasagna? Leave it in long sheets or cut it to the size you want. Shells, cut small strips, shape it around your thumb and let it dry. If you want to make green pasta. Blend some spinach leaves in water then run the liquid through a fine mesh strainer. Use that liquid in place of normal water in pasta recipes. Try adding different spices, oils, anything you can think of to change the taste or texture.