Noodles - All You Noodles, Roll Out! (Part 2 in a Multi Part Series)

So this is the fun part, and the part where the aforementioned "Noodler" comes in handy.  An alternative to the noodler is the tried and true rolling pin that was the source of many a flour stained hairdo for my sister and I in our youth.  Growing up, my lil' Sis and I spent several afternoons rolling out noodle dough at Grandma's house and hanging noodles to dry on broom sticks all around her kitchen.  My mom still laughs at the recollection of picking us up from Grandma's house with more flour in our hair and clothes than made it into the final product.














To start rolling out your dough through the noodler, cut your dough in half (for single egg recipe) and pat the ball into a thick disk.  Start with your widest setting on the machine and roll it through.  After the first pass, fold it over (hamburger or hotdog style, doesn't matter) and pass through the machine running the dough in the same direction as the first time.  This is key because it stretches the gluten in the flour into the strings that will become your noodles.  Continue folding your dough and running through the widest setting (alternating hamburger and hotdog styles) until it's a long rectangle and the edges are smooth (about 5-7 times...but this is not a hard and fast rule).

Hotdog Style

Hamburger Style

Cracked Edges

SIDNENOTE: if the edges of your dough "crack," this is not necessarily a bad thing.  Early on when I was making noodles, I thought it meant my dough was too dry and it wouldn't get the texture I wanted.  As I've made noodles more and more, I find I prefer a bit stiffer dough as it makes the final texture a bit chewier or, my favourite texture term, more "toothsome."  It also reduces the risk of the noodles sticking together before cooking.

Once your dough is the shape you want to start stretching, flour your dough and squeeze down to the second widest setting.  NOTE: you cannot use too much flour in this process.  If your dough is a bit wetter than you'd hoped when you started rolling, flour between each step in the stretching process.  I always flour after the widest stage and immediately prior to the cutting stage, regardless of how much I floured in the middle stages.  This helps the noodles stay separated if you're making lots of them.

Time to get stretching...

Cutting the heavily floured dough

Keep stepping down one level at a time until your dough reaches the desired thickness.  Unfortunately, I can't share what is the "proper" thickness as I won't know what the intent or your noodle making is.  I go thicker for soup noodles, varying ranges of thicknesses for fettuccine/spaghetti type noodles, and a 6 on the Altas noodler if I'm doing stuffed pasta's like ravioli (now there's an idea for another post!).   This is the entire fun of making noodles at home.  You get to experiment and decide what works best for your needs.  I do recommend changing it up once in a while.  We went much thinner on a noodle one time than we typically would for a seafood pasta and we were pleasantly surprised with the result.

We're All done!

I'll take a break from the noodles posts for now but stay tuned for future discussions on naturally colored noodles, stuffed pastas, and explorations of what different types of flours, egg "parts," and water do to pasta.