Monday, May 11, 2009

Homemade Noodles

I love nice thick chewy noodles and the texture that can only come from fresh noodles, not dried. Since it's sometimes hard to find them at stores, I decided to make them myself. The only problem is that even though it's easy, it makes a big mess, so if I'm going to the trouble of making them, I like to make extra and freeze them. I floured them heavily and froze them in individually sized portions. Unfortunately, they stuck together even though I dusted them with a ton of flour. If you have a suggestion on on how store/freeze them, please let me know!


Ingredients:
- 2 parts Flour

- 1 part Ice Water
- lots of extra Flour to keep things from sticking

Directions:
- Mix the water and flour together and knead until it forms a nice smooth dough, adding more flour as needed for dusting the work surface and your hands.

- Let the dough rest for at least 10 minutes.

- Roll the dough out into sheets about 1/8 of an inch thick. If you're having trouble rolling it out, let it rest longer.

- Flour the sheet heavily and roll it loosely.

- Cut the rolls into strips of your desired thickness. Personally, I like them about half an inch wide.

- Carefully unroll the cut strips and lay them out, heavily floured so that they don't stick.
- Bring a large pot of water to a boil.

- Put the noodles into the water for just a few minutes until the noodles are cooked through.

- Drain the noodles and put them into the broth of your choice or toss them with olive oil or sesame oil for use at a later time.




17 comments:

Leslie said...

i love homemade pasta. I freeze the unused dough without cutting it

stephchows said...

Seriously?? Only flour and water? Crazy :) They sure look tasty!

lisaiscooking said...

Your noodles look fantastic! Maybe let them dry a bit more before freezing. Just guessing, not really sure.

Chris said...

Yes - I agree that good, fresh noodles (of the right thickness and width) are hard to find! I had no idea it was just water and flour. I will certainly give this a shot. Great post - thanks for the detailed explanation!

Tangled Noodle said...

Could it really be this easy? If it is, I'm definitely going to try this out!

Patsyk said...

I'm in the midst of challenging myself to make homemade pasta! The recipe I use has flour and eggs, very simple as well.

gaga said...

Leslie - Thanks for the tip, that's a great idea.

stephchows - Yup, just flour and water. Make sure it's ice water though (it helps with the chewy texture, or so I was taught)

lisaiscooking - That makes sense. I'll give that a try next time.

Chris - I looked on the back of a package of fresh noodles that weren't quite as thick and the ingredients listed were just flour and water. I suppose a little salt wouldn't hurt though.

Tangled Noodle - Yes, it is really that easy. Give it a try!

Patsyk - I've made pasta with flour and eggs before and love it! Homemade pasta is definitely worth the effort.

Janet @ Gourmet Traveller 88 said...

Wow, I always wonder if it is possible to make homemade noodles, if homemade pasta is possible why not the noodles ? Yours look great!

Olga said...

Those would be so perfect for drunken noodles!!!

Maybe I should dust off my pasta machine :0

Btw, definitely try gazpacho and let me know what you think.

Hello My Name is Katie said...

oh man, i can't believe it's really that straightforward. this is the worst (and best) news ever, as i am constantly losing the bulge battle when it comes to carbs. haha. i have flour and ice water handy at all times! i'll definitely give this a shot.

Anonymous said...

let it rest before you cut it.

Elizabeth said...

Ooh - this looks fun! I will have to give it a try.

Amber said...

i love making noodles! to help against sticking, try freezing not on a baking sheet, but a styrofoam tray (that you might've washed from the supermarket)

Ozge said...

Practical! Makes me want to give it a try.

kt said...

Thanks so much for posting this recipe! Your instructions were really easy to follow, and made the whole process sound so simple.

Here's my attempt at the noodles:
http://noodlefever.blogspot.com/2010/01/homemade-hand-cut-noodles.html

Kitchen Slave said...

I made these and they were pretty good! I should have added a little less flour I think as the floury taste was a bit strong but the chewy texture was great! Do you think adding 1/8 sesame oil would change the texture drastically (and for the better)?

Unknown said...

A pretty important functions of one's kitchen are to store, prepare and cook food and to accomplish related tasks including dishwashing.low water pressure in house all of a sudden