Fresh pasta or noodles is easy to make! I used to be intimidated by making anything with flour and dough. It seemed like such an arduous task and difficult. A friend of mine told me she makes her noodles from scratch and dumpling skin from scratch! I didn't believe her that it was easy until I decided to experiment in the kitchen and try it out for myself. There are only a few ingredients needed to make fresh noodles.
Ingredients:
White flour
Egg (or if you can choose not to make egg noodles)
Cold Water
Tools you will need:
Rolling pin or a round cylinder like a bottle or a can but it needs to have some weight to it
Mixing spoon
Large clean flat surface
Sharp knife
I've made noodles with and without the egg the method is the same.
1) Place the flour into a mixing bowl
2) Trickle in the cold water and mixing the flour and water thoroughly until the flour becomes a thick paste
3) Add the egg and mix thoroughly until the batter turns into dough
4) Sprinkle flour on your flat surface and your hands (this is to ensure the your fingers don't get sticky!)
5) Place the dough onto the flat surface and season it well with flour on all sides
6) Rolling it in your hands into a ball and then flattening it on the surface. Add more flour to the surface as needed.
7) When the dough is a bit more seasoned with the extra flour and feels less sticky but more dough-like. Roll out the dough with the rolling pin.
8) Keep rolling the dough out and try to make it thin and even.
9) Season with flour.
10) Folding the end delicately as if you're going to roll sushi roll the dough into a long cylinder. It will probably look like a giant spring roll.
11) Using your sharp knife, cut into small sections similar to cutting sushi but in much smaller and precise millimetres. The width depends on whether you want to make tagliatelle, fettuccine, or pappardelle.
Flat noodles: Unroll all the pieces and lay them all out on a flat surface and season well with flour.
Noodles: Unroll all the pieces, roll the pieces into noodles then pull them out delicately to thin out the texture. It takes a bit of practice to do this.
12) Add the noodles into boiling water and add salt to the water. You don't want to overcook the noodles into a soft oblivion so about 45 sec. - 1:30 is probably ideal. Drain and serve with your favorite sauce.
See I told you it was easy! You don't need a pasta maker or have the hand-pulling skills of a lamian chef. It does take some patience and time though. Also a lot of trial and error. My pasta and noodle making skills are getting better over time. Fresh pasta is worth the effort though because it does taste much better and its also healthier too because commercial made dried noodles and pasta or sometimes the fresh pasta that is found in the refrigerated sections of the grocery store have added preservatives to the pasta that will help prolong the shelf life of the pasta. Have you ever wondered why dried pasta has a long shelf life?
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