When most people think of pasta, they usually go for the flour pasta varieties that come in a box and can be whipped into almost any type of traditional pasta dish. What you may not immediately think of are egg noodles, which are long, flat noodles and have a stronger flavor than basic noodles made from flour and water.
Even though you can buy egg noodles at the grocery story for not very much money, there’s really no substitute for making them at home from scratch. The flavors, the texture – it’s just perfect and we’re willing to bet that once you give it a try once, you won’t be going back to the store bought version any time soon.
What are Egg Noodles?
Egg noodles are noodles made from unleavened dough. Yes, they also use eggs, but the real key here is that the dough is unleavened – or isn’t made to rise. It’s generally thought that egg noodles originated in China a loooooong time ago, sometime around 25 – 200 AD. But, egg noodles have since spread all over the world and they’re eaten all over the East and West these days.
Most egg noodles look pretty much the same – long flat strands that are served simply with butter or with some type of sauce or gravy and topped with meat. Think beef stroganoff and the various spinoffs of meat, sauce, and noodles that you can make with the same general formula.
How to Cook Egg Noodles
Egg noodles aren’t much more difficult to make than regular old pasta, but they do call for an extra ingredients or two. Start by gathering the ingredients: 2 cups of all-purpose flour; 2 large eggs; 2 egg yolks (beaten); and 1/4 teaspoon of salt.
Mix together the flour and salt in a large bowl. Add in the eggs and the beaten egg yolks and mix with a blender (or knead with your hands if you don’t have a blender). The dough should be slightly tough to knead, but it shouldn’t be crumbly. If it is, add in a tablespoon of water and keep kneading.
Move the dough to a cutting board and roll out with a rolling pin until it’s around 1 inch in thickness. Cover the flattened dough with a sheet of plastic wrap and let sit for an hour. Don’t refrigerate – leave it at room temperature. Once the dough has set, separate it into four separate sections and roll each out until it’s thin enough to almost see through the dough. Cut the dough in half. Continue this process with the remaining three sections until you have eight sheets of dough. Lightly dust each section with flour and stack two sheets on top of each other. Roll loosely lengthwise and use a sharp knife to cut through the rolls in half inch sections. Do this for each two-sheet section of dough.
Once the noodles are all cut, lay them out on a baking sheet and keep refrigerated until you’re ready to use them.
To cook the egg noodles, drop fresh noodles into boiling water and let cook for 2-3 minutes or until the pasta is al dente. Keep in mind, fresh pasta takes way less time to cook than boxed pasta, so make sure to check it early and check it often to keep from overcooking and ending up with soggy, mushy egg noodles.
