Take some flour, add a dash of salt, and some egg. Roughly 1 egg per 3/4 cup of flour, depending upon A) the humidity levels of the day (and therefore how much moisture the flour starts with) and B) the size of the egg.
Mix together, adding more flour if needed (or a few drops of water if too dry to stick together) till you've got a stiff dough that isn't too sticky.
At this point you've got options. The easiest, and my personal favourite is to have a pot of boiling water or broth or a soup on the stove, take the handful of dough and a butter knife, and cut of small wedges of dough directly into the boiling liquid. I tend to cut slices which are about 7 to 12 mm wide and 20 to 30 mm long. Because of the way I push the chunk of dough for each noodle off of the pile and against the heel of my hand to break it free it winds up being roughly cylinder shaped with the two ends tapering to a point. It doesn't take long to slice all of the dough into the liquid. The noodles are done as soon as they float, which is very, very soon after they hit the boiling water.
Alternatively, you could put the dough onto a floured board and use a rolling pin (or flat-sided bottle) to roll it out to a thin sheet, which can then be sliced into shapes and dropped into boiling liquid. Again, as soon as they float they are cooked.
Or you could roll the dough out, cut rounds, put on a spoon full of filling, fold it in half and seal it and boil the filled noodles. If the filling was pre-cooked or needs no cooking they are done when they float. If the filling needs to be cooked, give them long enough in the boiling water to cook the filling.
If you want spinach pasta, chop some spinach very fine and add it to the dough. Note that since it is very wet it will take much more flour per egg than usual, which will change the texture of the noodles. I would recommend making the plain dough a time or three before experimenting with additions like spinach.
One of the reasons I'm so fond of home-made noodles is how fast they cook. If one wants to eat store-bought dried pasta one needs to wait the amount of time it takes for the water to boil plus 8 to 20 minutes (depending on the type) to boil the noodles soft enough to eat.
If I'm doing a quick batch of buttered noodles I can mix the dough in the amount of time it takes the water to boil, cut them into the pot, and in the time it takes to wash my hands, mixing bowl, spoon, and butter knife they are well cooked (indeed, if using an electric stove, I turn off the heat before I start that washing, as the pot continues to boil for a while). Then I can drain the noodles, put them in a bowl with some butter, spinach, and other veg that doesn't need cooking, add some seeds or nuts, perhaps a dash of spices, and I'm sitting down to eat in less time than it would have taken to boil the dry store-bought stuff. And it tastes ever so much better. Especially when living somewhere with happy chooks laying fresh eggs. (I miss that about Tassie!)
I've heard good things about Penman's books. Alas, it isn't all that easy to find English language books at a reasonable price here. Fortunately, I've still got tons of books I inherited from my step-dad that I haven't read yet, so I don't need to go looking all that often.
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Date: 2010-02-28 10:27 am (UTC)Take some flour, add a dash of salt, and some egg. Roughly 1 egg per 3/4 cup of flour, depending upon A) the humidity levels of the day (and therefore how much moisture the flour starts with) and B) the size of the egg.
Mix together, adding more flour if needed (or a few drops of water if too dry to stick together) till you've got a stiff dough that isn't too sticky.
At this point you've got options. The easiest, and my personal favourite is to have a pot of boiling water or broth or a soup on the stove, take the handful of dough and a butter knife, and cut of small wedges of dough directly into the boiling liquid. I tend to cut slices which are about 7 to 12 mm wide and 20 to 30 mm long. Because of the way I push the chunk of dough for each noodle off of the pile and against the heel of my hand to break it free it winds up being roughly cylinder shaped with the two ends tapering to a point. It doesn't take long to slice all of the dough into the liquid. The noodles are done as soon as they float, which is very, very soon after they hit the boiling water.
Alternatively, you could put the dough onto a floured board and use a rolling pin (or flat-sided bottle) to roll it out to a thin sheet, which can then be sliced into shapes and dropped into boiling liquid. Again, as soon as they float they are cooked.
Or you could roll the dough out, cut rounds, put on a spoon full of filling, fold it in half and seal it and boil the filled noodles. If the filling was pre-cooked or needs no cooking they are done when they float. If the filling needs to be cooked, give them long enough in the boiling water to cook the filling.
If you want spinach pasta, chop some spinach very fine and add it to the dough. Note that since it is very wet it will take much more flour per egg than usual, which will change the texture of the noodles. I would recommend making the plain dough a time or three before experimenting with additions like spinach.
One of the reasons I'm so fond of home-made noodles is how fast they cook. If one wants to eat store-bought dried pasta one needs to wait the amount of time it takes for the water to boil plus 8 to 20 minutes (depending on the type) to boil the noodles soft enough to eat.
If I'm doing a quick batch of buttered noodles I can mix the dough in the amount of time it takes the water to boil, cut them into the pot, and in the time it takes to wash my hands, mixing bowl, spoon, and butter knife they are well cooked (indeed, if using an electric stove, I turn off the heat before I start that washing, as the pot continues to boil for a while). Then I can drain the noodles, put them in a bowl with some butter, spinach, and other veg that doesn't need cooking, add some seeds or nuts, perhaps a dash of spices, and I'm sitting down to eat in less time than it would have taken to boil the dry store-bought stuff. And it tastes ever so much better. Especially when living somewhere with happy chooks laying fresh eggs. (I miss that about Tassie!)
I've heard good things about Penman's books. Alas, it isn't all that easy to find English language books at a reasonable price here. Fortunately, I've still got tons of books I inherited from my step-dad that I haven't read yet, so I don't need to go looking all that often.