Homemade Noodles

Every now and then, when I'm making chicken noodle soup, I like to fancy it up and make homemade noodles. They are not hard to do, and only require a little planning ahead. As I was cutting mine out this morning for dinner tonight, I thought they looked so pretty all hanging over the side of a mixing bowl that I just had to take a picture. There's something Christmas-y looking about them, isn't there?


2 cups flour
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning, optional
2 eggs, beaten
1/3 c water
2 tsp olive oil


Combine dry ingredients in a medium mixing bowl. In a smaller bowl, beat eggs well with a fork, then add water and oil. Make a well in the center of the flour mixure, and pour liquid mixture into the center. Combine ingredients well. Flour a surface with about 3-4 T additional flour, and knead the dough for 8-10 minutes, until it is smooth and elastic.

Cover dough and let rest for 10 minutes. Then divide dough into four equal portions. On a very lightly floured surface, roll out each portion into an approximately 12" circle (very thin). Cut into strips, or little raviolis, or bowties, or whatever shape desired. Allow noodles to dry overnight, or all day until they are completely dry. (If you're really short on time, you could put them in a very low oven, 200 degrees, for a little while to help them dry out faster. But letting them dry on their own is ideal.)

Boil them in water as you would store-bought pasta; their cooking time really depends on how thick they are. Keep in mind when you're cutting them that they will expand in size when you cook them (I always end up making my noodles too wide).

For my chicken noodle soup, I cut them into thin strips with my cute rotary pasta cutter, and let them dry over the side of a bowl. Later on I will cut them into about 1 1/2" lengths to go into the soup. Yum!