a cooking aside

Since my last adventure in making noodles from scratch, I find myself thinking about the lovely, supple feel of noodle dough. I wanted to have that feel in my hands again so I made up another batch of dough.

Last time I used the formula in Mark Ruehlman's book, Ratio. This time I turned to my old, trusty Settlement Cook Book. If you want to give their recipe a try, here it is.

4 eggs
2 2/3 Cups flour ( but this may vary based on how large your eggs are and how dry your flour is)
1 tsp salt.

Beat the eggs with the salt. Then add in the flour, first mixing with a spoon and then kneading with your hand. Put out on floured counter and continue to add flour and mix until you are able to knead the dough easily. Add flour until the mixture no longer sticks to the counter. Knead until the dough is really smooth and supple.

The dough will need to rest for about 20 minutes before you roll it out. Just turn the bowl you began your mixing in, upside down over the ball of dough. Clean off your doughy counter and then come back later.

It is easier to work with smaller amounts of dough because you want to roll the dough out really thin, so hack off a piece about a 1/5 th of the dough. Flour your counter and then flatten the dough into a disc and then start rolling the dough as thin as possible. I don't have a pasta maker so I rolled by hand. This is an easier, less fussy dough than pie crust. You can't over work it so just get into the zen of rolling out dough.

When the dough is really thin, thin enough so you can see the design of the counter underneath, you can cut it into shape. I have a fluted pastry cutter and used that to roll out strips with zig zagged edges. If you don't have a pastry cutter, you can cut the noodles with a sharp knife or with any other cute cutting tools you have in your utensil drawer. ( The Settlement Cook Book mentioned using a floured thimble to cut out round noodles. )

Allow your cut noodles to dry a bit on a floured surface before you cook them.

Last night I made Lokshen Mit Kaese with my noodles. It is an Eastern European version of Fettuccine Alfredo. It is a deep comfort food and is fast to make.

Boil noodles and drain. Return to pot. Add butter ( Eyeball about 1 pat per serving, this is to add flavor and mostly to keep the pasta from sticking to the pot during the rest of the cooking.) Put pot over medium/high heat. Add a container of collage cheese. Beat 2-3 eggs and add to mixture. Still well. Ad salt to taste and lots of black pepper. Stir until egg is completely cooked.

Yes, my measurements have been a bit vague. There is a lot of play in this recipie. It makes a quick dish if you use ready made egg noodles. using the home made noodles gives the dish much more character.

If I were a better blogger, I would have taken photos of the process. All of the Lokshen mit Kaese was eaten last night, so I can't take a photo of it this morning to show it to you in it's white on white glory. I will post photos the next time I do this.

I served it with braised Swiss chard. You need some serious green to serve along side the noodles. I realized that making noodles isn't very difficult at all. Buying pasta from the box is easier. Home made noodles have more personality thantheir bland store bought counterparts. It took me 30 years to get up the courage to try my hand at noodle making. I wasted 30 years waiting to try.