Noodling

I hadn't made pasta since my disaster with ravioli years ago. Always in a rush, I somehow missed the fact that pasta expands when cooked. My ravioli were 3 x 6 inches in size and split open and all the filling fell out.

I had wanted to make noodles the traditional Mennonite way for ages --- they are essential to good chicken soup, which has been a fascination of mine because the spices and herbs are so unique. This summer, Loris and I had a noodle making session, and she taught me all the secrets that the recipes don't tell you.

Homemade Noodles

Ingredients:
3 eggs
3 tbsp. water
2 tsp. salt
Flour

Instructions:
Clear a large space on the counter or table and scrub clean and dry.
Keep the bag of flour and scoop handy.
Add the eggs, water and salt to a large bowl and mix well.
Add enough flour to make a stiff dough, about 2 cups to start.
Stir the dough and then pick it up with your hands and work the dough until all the flour is incorporated. Add more flour as the ball gets sticky. The ball of dough will be very stiff and you will give your hands quite a workout. It will take about 5 minutes.
When the dough is very stiff and no longer sticky, flour a 24-inch square area of the work surface very heavily, and start rolling with a rolling pin. A big heavy one is good. Add more flour to the surface of the dough if it gets sticky.
It will take a long time to roll the dough out into a very rough circle. Press hard and keep stretching and rolling until the dough is about 1/8-inch thick and about 15 inches by 30 inches. The piece of dough can be any shape and very uneven around the edges, just as long as it's thin enough.
Now add about 1/8 to 1/4 inch of flour to the top of the dough, covering the whole surface including edges. Let the dough sit for about 30 to 60 minutes to dry. The flour dries the noodle dough, but does not get absorbed into the noodles, so you can't use too much.
Making sure there is plenty of flour on the entire surface to prevent the noodles from sticking, carefully roll the dough along the long edge very tightly into a long log.

With a sharp knife cut the log into short thin wedges (maximum 1/8-inch at the thick end) --- at a slight angle, first one way, then the other way. This makes very fine noodles, perfect for soup.
Each time a handful or so of noodles are cut, add them to a pile of flour and toss them to make sure they are well covered.

Ribbell them with your hands (not so gently rub them between your palms to make sure the noodles come apart). Keep adding flour as needed.
Once all the noodles are cut and ribbelled put them into a large seive and shake to remove the excess flour.

Brush the excess flour back into the bag or separate container to use for bread baking.

If you want long noodles, make one or two rounds of dough, put one on top of the other, and with a sharp knife, cut long thin strips.

Then either cook the noodles in salted boiling water until they rise to the surface or freeze them in a ziploc bag. If you freeze them, they won't stick together and you can remove as much as you need anytime and cook them frozen.
After the noodles are cooked, drain them in a seive, and immediately put them back in the pot and add butter to prevent sticking.

If making chicken soup, put noodles into the individual soup bowls and add broth and meat to the noodles. Don't add the noodles to the soup pot --- they'll get soggy.