National Noodle Day

It's National Noodle Day and you know that we love pasta. Sure we could go out to Olive Garden for noodles, or even cook some dry pasta, but these National Days always have me wanting to do a little bit extra. It's been years since I've made my own pasta, but I figured today would be the perfect day to bring out the pasta roller.

Homemade pasta really isn't difficult to make. Flour, eggs, salt, baking soda, and water. Easy peasy. 

All you do is mix them together.

And then you knead, and knead, and knead.

And then you knead it a little more. This would be easier with a stand mixer.

After you're done with all that kneading, it goes into the fridge for at least an hour. After that time, the dough is chilled and ready to go through the pasta machine. Please excuse the blurry photo. Like I said, the dough is chilly and is likely shivering.

Time to invite the kids to join in on the fun. They haven't seen a pasta machine before. They watched as the little puck of dough got thinner and thinner and longer and longer.

Finally it's time to get them involved. We need to cut this sheet of pasta into noodles. And since it's been forever since I've made pasta, I have misplaced the pasta machine crank. This pair of kitchen sheers is just the right size to engage the mechanism. I'll just have to be a little more careful when turning it.

Go ahead Alli. Cut us some fettuccine noodles.

And of course Ian wanted to have a go with it.

No-one ever said making noodles was a clean process. With these fresh noodles, all it takes is 2-3 minutes in boiling water for them to be done.

Voila! Fettuccine Alfredo with grilled chicken!

Theresa has a copycat recipe for Olive Garden's Pasta e Fagoili soup which will go perfect with this.

And after all that work... the kids wanted ramen for dinner on Noodle Day.

Theresa and I enjoyed our tasty dinner on Noodle Day though.