Serious Pasta Performance!

 To save a bit towards Christmas activities, I'm doing my best to live 'out of the cupboard' this week. It is also a good way to discover hidden, frozen treasures in the forgotten depths of the freezer. I discovered a small package of boneless beef, about a quarter of a pound. It made me think of ravioli especially since I now have a pasta roller. I cooked down the beef with a bag of frozen onions/pepper also discovered in my excavating and roughly chopped it up for filling said ravioli. It took two hours from start to finish but I've learned that in order to save money, you have to be willing to offer some extra work time to the bargain. With flour, eggs, milk, and random meat, I made enough for five plates of pasta plus a small leftover for one of the children's lunch the next day.

The only difficult part (and it isn't really that difficult!) is to get the dough right either for machine or hand rolling. Know that you will need extra flour on hand and expect to dust the immediate area of the floor around your working counter with flour!

Homemade Pasta Dough
4 cups flour
3 eggs
2 tablespoons olive oil
1-2 tablespoons of milk

First, dump your flour either in a mixing bowl. Make a well in the middle of the flour and add the eggs. Mix that together and if it is too dry, add one, more egg. At this point, it should still be a bit dry so add the oil and milk. If the dough gathers into a workable but not sticky ball, you are ready to go. If it is too wet or sticky, add bits of flour until it reaches the desired workable texture. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes.

Keep a bowl of flour at hand. Dust the work board with flour and take a fourth of our dough and roll it as thin as you like. Cut the dough into noodle strips of whatever width you prefer. A pizza cutter works great for this. Spread the noodles out on waxed paper covered and floured baking sheets.

If you are using them for chicken or beef soup, you can add them at the finish of the soup just make sure the water is a mild boil so they don't stick. Stir constantly as your put them in. The flour from the noodles also helps thicken the broth a bit. It takes about five to six minutes to cook through depending on the thickness.

No soup? You can cook them in boiling, salted water, drain and serve with pasta sauce either canned or homemade. Have lots of grated cheese at hand and serve. I don't think you will get any complaints once the family is over the surprise.