I’ve been making homemade pasta for several years. It is SO easy and everyone loves it. I mostly use the noodles for Chicken and Noodle Soup or Beef and Noodles. Or, sometimes I roll the recipe into Lasagna Noodles (I’ll share how I do that soon).
By the way…I can’t decide whether to call this pasta or noodles. Is there a difference? If it’s okay with you, I’ll just keep using the words interchangeably since I apparently can’t make a decision about which one to use. Hopefully I won’t accidentally combine the two and call it poodles because that’s a different thing entirely and poodles can neither be mixed in a bowl nor rolled out on a well floured surface.
I think most people assume it’s hard to make your own noodles. If you are one of those people, please try mixing these up really quickly and find out how EASY they are to make!! Here…I’ll show you…
Whole Wheat Pasta
2 1/3 cups whole wheat flour (I use freshly ground flour)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 beaten eggs
1/3 cup water
1 teaspoon olive oil
Grain Soaking Instructions (so that the grain will be more easily digested):
Use the same ingredients, substituting the water with a cultured dairy product like buttermilk or plain yogurt. Mix then cover with a towel and let it sit for 12-24 hours.
First mix the flour and salt together in a bowl and make a little”pit” in the middle.
Beat your eggs in a separate bowl, then pour them into the flour mixture.
Add the water (or buttermilk) and olive oil.
Stir well until the ingredients are mostly combined.
Dump it out onto a floured surface and knead it a little bit to get the ingredients combined well.
(If you are planning to soak the grain, you would begin at this point.
Put the “blob of dough” back into your bowl, cover and let it sit for 12-24 hours.)
Make sure your surface has a LOT of flour all over it so that your noodles won’t stick when you roll out the dough. Sticky noodles are not fun. (I would imagine that sticky poodles are not fun either, but I don’t have any experience in this area.)
Use a well floured rolling pin and roll and roll and roll until your noodle dough is almost hanging off the side of your counter top. Or at least until it is very thin, about 1/8 inch in thickness. You may need to keep tossing some flour under the dough as you roll to keep it from sticking.
I use a pizza cutter to cut long strips in my noodle dough.
That’s what Grandma used to do after all.
Ooh, isn’t it purty?
Cut your noodles any length you want.
In case you’re wondering…I made a double batch. Yeah…that’s a lot of noodles.
Once you’ve cut your noodles you can either use them right away, or you can let them dry so that you can store them and have them ready for when you need them.
I used my new dehydrator to dry the noodles, but you can just leave them on the countertop to dry if you want. It will take a while…like several hours or even an entire day. You may also need to turn the noodles over after a few hours so that the under side can dry.
Once the noodles are completely dry, store them in an air tight container in your pantry. They will stay good for up to a month. They can also be frozen….just let them thaw a little before you cook them.
To cook your noodles:
Bring six cups of chicken, beef or vegetable broth to a boil. (I like to include cooked meat and veggies in my broth too when I add noodles.) Stir in the noodles, making sure they don’t stick to each other. Salt well. Cover and simmer for 20-25 minutes or until the noodles are fat and tender.
