Perfect Homemade Egg Noodles - Ben Intentional (2024)

If you have a proud Italian in your life you’ve inevitable heard, “My nonni made the best pasta ever! No, seriously, you don’t understand.” Yeah, we probably don’t. My gran gran never made homemade egg noodles, but, then again she wasn’t Italian. She did make salsa capable of burning your tongue faster than a strip of Texas asphalt.

That she could do.

After you make these noodles, your friends, children, and social media followers will be forever saying things like, “You don’t understand how good these homemade egg noodles were. Seriously.” In the case of your social media followers, it might be a bit creepy, but hey, that’s the age we live in.

Onwards!

LET’S GET COOKIN’

INGREDIENTS

• AP flour
• eggs
• salt
• [optional] turmeric

INSTRUCTIONS

Combine your ingredients in a bowl. In the video, I just use a tabletop and a dough scraper. I do this for three very important reasons:

1. It looks super cool.
2. It impresses my wife and son.
3. I get to pretend like I’m on a cooking show.

Now, you can leave turmeric out of your homemade egg noodles, but I wouldn’t. It doesn’t detract from the flavor and it looks way better in pictures. It makes the noodles feel eggier somehow. Don’t ask me how.

Once you’ve scraped [or stirred] the dough into a rough lump, you have to knead it. Set a timer. Roll up your sleeves, and start kneading. The video goes into more finer points on technique, but essentially you’re smashing folding then smashing. It’s fun. It’s therapeutic.

Go for it! Take some aggression out on your noodles.

After five minutes the dough should be smooth. Cover and set in fridge for 20-30-minutes.

Top Tip: if you want to prepare this dough ahead of time, you can let it sleep in the fridge overnight. Nothing bad will happen. Just use it that next day.

After resting in fridge, cut dough in half and cover the half you’re not using. [Now is a good time to salt some water and start it boiling. Add in a TBS (15 ml) of salt per 4 cups (960 ml) of water.]

TIME TO SMUSH

Smush your dough until you can feed it through the WIDEST SETTING on your noodle maker. Roll it through that widest setting and then change to a thinner setting. Repeat. Keep adjusting down until it’s about three pennies thick, I usually run it through three or four times before reaching that thinness.

Now, FOLD YOUR homemade egg noodle dough onto itself [just like folding a sheet onto itself] and adjust your noodle maker back up a few thicknesses.

Top Tip: If your dough starts to ribbon or buckle on itself, the setting is TOO THIN. Back it off one setting in thickness and keep going.

We’re folding the dough onto itself so the stretch is super emphasized and the gluten bonds get ridiculously strong. We want that. That = bouncy, chewy noodles. Keep passing the ever-lengthening dough through your noodle maker while reducing the thickness each pass.

The rhythm: Pass through the dough maker. Click to the next thinnest setting on the noodle maker. Pass through.

Top Tip: Lightly flour your lengthening homemade egg noodles so they won’t stick to themselves.

When you get to the second to last setting on your noodle maker you should be able to see through your noodles when held to a light. Don’t worry, they expand when you cook them.

LET’S CUT SOME HOMEMADE NOODLES

You’ve arrived at optimal homemade egg noodle thickness. It’s time. Pass them through your wide noodle cutting setting [the one that looks like it’s for fettuccini… because it is].

If you only have a tiny noodle setting on your noodle maker, fear not. You can flour your noodle surfaces and fold it over itself three times. Then take a sharp knife and cut the noodles to your desired thickness: 1/4 inch to 3/8ths of an inch should be perfect [7 to 10 mm].

Top Tip: As you’re cutting your homemade egg noodles in the noodle maker LIGHTLY FLOUR YOUR CUT NOODLES. Cutting your noodles exposes new sticky edges that want to grab on to each other. Yes, your noodles have separation anxiety. Flour cures this.

HOW TO COOK HOMEMADE NOODLES

Drop your homemade egg noodles into your boiling and salted water. Stir your noodles! They should cook in 2-3 minutes. Watch them. When they float AND have expanded… they’re done!

Strain them. SHOCK them in cold water. Listen, don’t skip the shocking! If you don’t then they’ll keep cooking and get soggy. SHOCK YOUR NOODLES!!

Don’t worry about them being cold. Your pasta sauce, or noodle broth will heat them right back up.

Enjoy. You’ve just leveled up your kitchen skills and you’ll forever be disappointed with store bought pasta.

Go you.

EQUIPMENT

• Italian Noodle Maker

FAQ

Can I make them by hand?

Sure. I’ve done it, but remember two things:

1. Homemade egg noodles take a TON of energy. A rolling pin will suffice, but you’ll be sweating by the end.
2. Your noodles won’t get as perfectly thin. Uniformity with the rolling pin is INCREDIBLY difficult. I didn’t say “impossible” I said “difficult.” It’s your call.

Can I cut my noodles ahead of time then use them the next day?

Technically, yes. I’ve done it. The homemade egg noodles cook. They separate just fine (provided they’re properly floured) but they just aren’t as good. They dry out and loose some of that springiness that I ADORE about fresh homemade egg noodles.

MORE RECIPIES YOU’LL LOVE

• the best homemade chicken noodle soup
• homemade chicken stock

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asian basics egg noodles homemade noodles homemade pasta how to Italian noodles