OODLES of NOODLES

Thanksgiving time when I was young found oodles of noodles laid out on the kitchen table to dry. My mom made THE best noodles. Cooked them up in the turkey broth and then spooned on top of mashed potatoes. In our neck of the woods, we put noodles on top of mashed potatoes. (recently I have encountered a strange sort of phenomenon, where they DON'T put their noodles on their potatoes, but beside them on the plate)

Unfortunately, I did not learn how to make them when I was young.
I am a self-taught noodle maker from when I lived in Texas. I had a few cook books and even a Betty Crocker cook book, but none of them told me to throw them out on the table to dry. Ha.

Anyway, I experimented with noodles and dried them several different ways. What I didn't know was that they don't have to be dried to go right into the pot. But if you want keep them on hand....or make them in advance so you aren't doing it all on Thanksgiving Day, then you want to dry them. I usually dry mine and then freeze them and then I have them on hand. The recipe is at the bottom, but I will talk about each picture as we go.

Mix flour and salt together. Add the yolks and the one whole egg. Add food coloring (optional) with the eggs. Farm fresh eggs won't need the food coloring, but store bought eggs might-if you want the noodles to look 'rich'.

Stir the egg mixture together and then start incorporating the flour mixture and mix until you can 't use a fork any longer.

Then with a pastry blender mix it until it looks like this.

Sprinkle the water into the mixture 1 T. at a time and then stir with the fork. I tilt the bowl and stir quickly, but lightly letting the pieces come together at will. Keep adding the water until the dough doesn't stick to the bowl and you can easily make a ball. You don't want it too dry or too wet-somewhere in the middle. Cut the dough into 4 balls.

Then flour your counter top or a pastry mat.

Then pat one of the balls into a disc, flouring both sides.

I roll mine thin enough to just see the lines of the mat through the dough. I turn the dough and flour it several times while rolling it out.

Then I take my newest fun tool(from The Pampered Chef) and cut the dough into strips. I then slide a large metal flipper under them and move them to the table and scatter them out. (Make sure you put the cat up if you have one)

Let them dry for a while and then

put them in a strainer and shake it so the excess flour falls through the bottom.

You can then flash freeze them and move them to freezer bags tomorrow or just put them in your soup right now.

This particular soup has chicken broth, carrots,celery, onions and chicken. I have the soup boiling when I add the noodles and let them come back to a boil for a few minutes and then I reduce the heat and let them simmer for 20 minutes or so til done. Cooking time depends on how thick and wide you make your noodles.

I used to boil them to death until the broth evaporated and they would almost burn.
I have learned to cook them more gently.

I have cut them by flouring them extra heavy rolling them up like a burrito cut them into strips, unroll them and then let them dry. Shake off the flour. I have dried the whole rolled out piece of dough in a warm oven and then cut them and froze them. I have transferred the cut strips to cookie sheet and let them flash freeze and then the next day, just break them up and stick them in a freezer bag. All these work. It is just what ever works for YOU. I have even used a handy dandy pasta maker to roll and cut the dough. But this isn't my favorite method yet. Although the pasta maker makes good spaghetti.


This recipe is from the Betty Crocker cookbook.
2 C. flour
3 egg yolks
1 egg
1 tsp. salt (BC calls for 2 tsp....but I have learned that 1 tsp. works fine)
1/4 - 1/2 C. water
yellow food coloring is optional