Home Made Noodles for Pasta

The thing about cooking that I always like to tell myself (and not to diss the real chef-artists in this world) is that cooking, or making food from basic ingredients is actually quite easy. Think about it. Many of the basic creations had their origins a long time ago and back in the day the people creating them; by and large were uneducated and everything was done by hand. So to make it 'it' had to be doable by the hands of commoner. And that is why with your big modern brain and some power tools you can do it too!

The only difference we have today in the preparation of food is the concept of time. Perhaps, we see that the time we have is so limited that we do not have the time to make our own food. Which is a big misconception. Next time think about it this way: did the old world baker have episodes of CSI: Miami to stay on top of? No, but she did live a quarter of the time as the modern ameture baker and was still able to master her craft, so you can too! 

What anyone chooses to waste there time on is there own business but for one to say 'I don't have the time’ in this day of intense leisure is completely a fallacy. So why does this all have to do with noodles anyway?

Well, noodles, if made by hand, take some time to make but at the end of the experience are beautiful to eat and share with your cast of friends and loved ones.

I don't have a gram scale to measure out the proper quantity but I do have a 2 cups/500 ml PYREX glass measuring cup that I filled to the point where the top of the entire container (yes that's the entire container, far beyond the) 2 cup/16 oz measuring cup line sits. To that added 2 large eggs a few shirts of Olive Oil, a little water and pinch of salt. I combine this in a bowl and mix with a wire whisk, fork or dough tool. If you have a food processor this will save you quite a bit of time, though you may have to adjust your quantities for the machine mix, I’m not sure why but every time I do this I find my Cuisineart tends to like dough a sukoshi moister in order to ‘ball up’ properly. 

Mix it till it becomes ‘doughy’ then work the dough till it become smoother dough, like a product you'b buy from the store without lumps etc. then roll onto a large cutting surface. The first time I did this I rolled and cut it straight onto my Ikea cutting board kitchen island and using just a rolling pizza cutter did some minor damage to the cutting block. From then on I’ve decided to cut it on an actual cutting block. 

Using a rolling pizza cutting tool and a straight edge I cut strips int he flat cutting dough. Usually, as I get into the tedious cutting process I recall that I can just eyeball the cuts of pasta making the straightest lines possible but keeping with the shifting irregularities to create that 

‘artisanal’ effect. 

Lay the cuts of pasta out on a towel to dry. Pasta is pretty much ready to go into the boil after its been made and cooking times vary depending on how dry the pasta became during the drying time. I usually let it dry to medium and boil for about 3-4 minutes to al dente!