Brooke wanted pasta to go with the leftover leg of lamb "gravy" I made while in Whistler. I felt very lazy but the pantry yielded no good looking pasta options. I dug through the fridge and found 
that I had fresh eggs available, so I decided to drag out the pasta gear and made some fresh egg noodles. I'm very glad I did. Here's the recipe:
Fresh Egg Noodles
(yields 4 servings)
1 cup semolina flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp kosher salt (or 1/2 tsp table salt)
2 eggs
3-4 tbsp water (depending on dough consistency - I don't typically measure this).
INSTRUCTIONS:
I decided to use my standing mixer with the paddle to mix the dough. It made it really simple and the cleanup was easier than the hand made method.
MIXER METHOD: Measure 1 cup of semolina flour and place in mixer. Then add 1 cup all purpose flour. Add salt and mix for for about 20 seconds. Then crack and add eggs directly into the mixer. Drizzle a little water at a time while the mixer is running on medium speed until the dough just comes together. To test if the dough is ready, stop the mixer after the first two tablespoons of water and grab a handful of dough. Squeeze and see if it holds together, if it is still crumbly, then turn mixer back on and add more water, a tablespoon at a time until the mixture holds together. Then let the mixer beat the pasta for about 1 minute and turn out onto the counter.
HAND MADE METHOD: Measure 1 cup of semolina flour, 1 cup of all-purpose flour, into a mound on your clean kitchen countertop or large cutting board. With your hand, make a well in the middle of the flour mixture until it resembles a large volcano. Crack the eggs into a bowl, add 3 tablespoons of water and 1 tsp. kosher salt and beat well. Pour the egg/water mixture into the well. With your fingers begin to incorporate the flour mixture from the walls of the volcano into the well a little at a time until the dough comes together. Slowly push in the walls of the volcano until all of the flour has been mixed with the egg mixture. Add more water a tablespoon at a time if the dough is too tough, if the dough is too sticky, add more all-purpose flour 1 tbsp at a time until the dough is a texture more like play-do. Knead the dough for about 3 minutes, it should be springy and smooth. Let rest for 10 minutes while you get out your pasta machine and attach it to the counter.
Roll the pasta according to your pasta machine's directions, but this typically starts by setting the machine to the widest setting, then rolling the dough through for several passes while each time folding the dough like a letter and running it through the machine again. You have to do this about 5 or 6 times on the widest setting to knead the dough and make it more elastic. Then crank the setting up to make thinner sheets until you are satisfied with the thickness. Once you are at your desired thickness, then run the pasta sheets through the fettuccine cutter. Gather the pasta up and dust with a small amount of flour so the strands don’t stick together.
Once you have prepped all of the pasta, boil in a big pot of salted water. Drain after 2-3 minutes and serve. I used my leftover leg of lamb with tomato gravy. Mmmmmmm.
It was good and Brooke was a very happy boy indeed.
:-)
