Rustic Pasta

After making that last batch of tomato sauce, I figured it was about time I tried making some noodle pasta. Since I don't have a pasta cutter, I just did it by hand and called it rustic - why not? I ended up with pleasantly thick noodles. The idea was inspired by the Sugarlaws blog, though I used all-purpose flour instead of wheat, because the only wheat flour I had on hand was bread flour.

Recipe:
2 c. all-purpose flour
1 large pinch, salt
2 large eggs
water

Mound the flour and salt and dig a small hole in the middle of it. Add the two eggs.

Mix this together by hand, and you will end up with a very crumbly dough. Add water one tablespoon at a time and knead until the dough comes together nicely. If the dough becomes sticky (mine did after 5 tablespoons of water), just add more flour. Once the dough is finished, roll out as thin as possible (I maxed out my largest cutting board, so they didn't end up too thin), and dust the top with flour. Starting from one end, roll the dough into a jelly roll shape, then slice to desired pasta thickness.

Have a bit of flour on the side, and unroll each noodle. Keep your fingers powdered with flour so the noodles become lightly coated, that way they are less likely to stick to one another. Get a big pot of salted water boiling and add the pasta. Mine was complete after 5 minutes, but cooking time will vary on thickness of the noodles. They are done when all the noodles are floating at the surface of the water.

After draining the pasta, I put it back in the pot and added some of the previously made tomato sauce. I stirred it around a bit to coat all the pieces, then served. It looks like it should be enough for about 3 servings. The noodles ended up pleasantly tender. When I make more pasta in the future, I will likely try to add some herbs or spices just to change things up, and I will probably roll out only half the recipe at a time so I can get thinner noodles.