Make your own noodles

I love pasta.  I love carbs.  I love to make homemade noodles and I receive many complaints around here when I use store-bought noodles.  It is super simple and not as much work as you would think.  You can use a stand mixer, bread machine with a dough setting, or just your hands.  Here’s the recipe so you can follow along.

2 cups of All Purpose Flour

2 eggs

1/3 cup of water

Put all of this into your mixer, bread machine, or heavy bowl.  Mix/knead this for a good long while.  Probably 3-5 minutes in a stand mixer and at least that long by hand.  If it looks dry you can sprinkle a little water on it.  If it looks wet, dust it with flour.  Now walk away and do something else for 10 minutes.  30 minutes is better but not necessary.

The dough needs to rest a while and you need to cook something to put these fabulous noodles into.  When you come back to it roll it into a large shape with a rolling-pin.  Go ahead and use more flour to prevent sticking.  The extra flour will help to thicken the sauce you are cooking anyway.  If the dough stretches out when you roll it and then snaps back it needs more resting time.  If you are in a hurry just go ahead and cut it, it won’t hurt anything.  Time to cut.  I really don’t care what shape you cut your noodles.  We like long rectangles like fettucine, but you could get fancy and use cookie cutters.  Chicken and stars, anyone?  Just remember the noodles will be larger after cooking.

My pizza cutter is the best tool for the job.  Sorry about the blob hand.  I haven’t figured out how to run the ipod camera with one hand yet.

Once it is all cut you can leave it on the counter to dry a little or use it immediately. I have even dried it for an hour or so and then frozen it with great results.  This week I boiled it for 15 minutes and then added it to my mother-in-law’s ham and noodle casserole.

3 cups cooked ham, chopped small

2 cans cream of chicken soup

1 batch of homemade noodles

1 1/2 cups of milk

1 1/2 cups of grated cheddar cheese

Mix this all together and put into a 9 x 13 pan.  I like to put crushed potato chips on top before baking 30 minutes at 350 degrees.  Enjoy!  And please let me know if you try this!

Check out the other frugal tips on Learning the Frugal Life.  She does this every Tuesday and I’ve gotten some great tips.  Remind me to tell you about the cleaning spray recipe!