Homemade Pappardelle

I'm a creative person at heart and that carries on into the kitchen. I like creating and cooking new and novel meals for my family whenever I have time. Recently, I decided to try my hand at homemade pappardelle. I had a craving for luscious noodles and a rich beef ragu sauce with lots of parmesan cheese (check back soon for the sauce recipe). So, "for fun" I decided to try my hand at making my own pasta. It can't be that hard I thought, and they weren't, and let me tell you, they were delicious.

You don't need any fancy tools for this recipe, just a clean counter, rolling pin, and knife. This is more time consuming so make sure to save it for a weekend night when you have more time to devote. I would say it took 15 minutes to create the dough, 20 minutes for it to sit, and then about 30 more minutes to roll it out. Overall, set aside at least an hour or even 1.5 hours of time to create this pasta. It's totally worth it though!

Homemade Pappardelle

*makes 8 servings

Ingredients:

4 eggs

3 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/4 teaspoon salt

small bowl of cold water

plastic wrap

Directions:

1. On a clean counter, create a large mound with your flour, make a hole in the middle, and add your eggs, olive oil, and salt right into the hole.

2. Make your bowl of cold water and set it nearby to have while you make your dough.

3. Slowly, with a fork, start adding in flour little by little into your eggy middle. Once the side of my flour pile broke, but I just scooped it all together and started using my hands to mix it.

4. It will look kind of fluffy and jagged. Keep working it together. Add about a tablespoon or two of the cold water to your mixture until it starts to form a dough. I think I added about 6 tablespoons to this batch.

5. Using your hands, create a ball with the dough, kneading it until it's smooth and slightly elastic feeling, about 10 minutes. It should look like this below. If it's too sticky add a little flour until it's more like a playdough texture.

6. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap or covered in a bowl, and let sit for about 20 minutes at room temperature.

7. Once it's sat, take a knife or bench/dough scraper and cut the dough in 4 pieces like a pie. Place the unused dough back in the plastic wrap until you are ready for it.

8. On a clean, floured surface (I used the counter) use your hands to slightly press down the dough and use the rolling pin to roll it out. Make sure to keep dough, counter, and rolling pin floured to keep it from sticking.

9. Roll out your dough slightly thinner than you think because it will puff up a bit when cooking. I just eyeballed this part.

10. Once you have it rolled out as thin as you like it, take a knife and cut strips about 1 inch wide and about 12 inches long. It's okay if they aren't perfect that makes it more homemade.

11. Add a little bit of flour to a bowl, baking pan, or space on your counter, grab the noodles in the middle and drag them in the flour to lightly coat them. Swirl noodles into "nest" on a cutting board or baking sheet until ready. Repeat the same process with the remaining 3 mounds of dough.

    * I've found that each "nest" makes about 2 servings of pasta.

    
    

12. Lastly cook or store your pasta (see below) and serve with your favorite sauce!

Cook:

To cook the pappardelle, boil a large pot of water. Cook for 3-5 minutes (depending on thickness) in boiling water until al dente. You can finish off the noodles in your sauce of choice.

Store:

I usually cook my pasta the same day, but you can store it, covered, in the refrigerator for a few days or lay it flat on a baking sheet in the freezer for a few hours, and then transfer it to a plastic bag for storing in the freezer. I think I doubled the cooking time when I froze my last batch, but test the doneness to your liking.