Homemade (FRESH) Spaghetti and Bison Meatballs Tutorial

Did you know how very easy it is to have your own fresh noodles the next time you want pasta? I sure didn't!

I've thought about getting a pasta maker for a long time, but only recently (when I had a Bed Bath & Beyond Gift Card) did I take the plunge. I bought a decent, $35 hand crank pasta roller and cutter which comes included with a spaghetti and linguine attachment. 

Let's start with the finished product. I sure do love spaghetti and meatballs!

I did a little research, and over the weekend decided I was ready to give it a try! Since I was going to be using homemade noodles, it didn't feel right putting from-the-jar red sauce over my hard work, so I decided to make a homemade sauce as well.

Spoiler alert: I have never been able to make a proper red sauce. I don't know why. I have tried many different recipes and I never like them. It must be my lack of Italian blood.

But! I did make delicious noodles (for a first try!) as well as awesome Bison Meatballs! Which if you've been around this blog at all, you may have seen my recipe for those already!

Getting started: The Noodles

So this is what my pasta machine looks like. Pretty simple. The back where you can see the grooves are where the cutters are and the front is the roller.

Homemade pasta noodles are fairly simple. All it takes is 1 cup of flour, 1 egg and a pinch of salt. You scoop your flour & salt into a mound and form a deep well where you add a beaten egg.

I learned on a later try that it's best if you beat your eggs before adding them to the well.

Using a fork and/or your hands, you should incorporate the flour into the egg until it forms a sticky ball. You'll want to have some water set aside as you may need to add it a little bit at a time if your dough is crumbly. Once you have the ball formed, you want to need it on a lightly floured surface.

This will require quite a lot of kneading (using primarily the palms of your hands) until the dough is smooth, elastic and uniform in color.

After you knead, you need to allow the dough to rest for 10-15 minutes, covered with a damp rag.

I kneaded this dough quite a bit more after this picture was taken.

Once your dough has rested, it's time to get ready to roll. You'll need to begin rolling with a rolling pin until it is flat enough to feed through your rolling machine. 

 

Your machine should have several settings on it - mine has 7. This is to adjust the thickness of your noodles. You should start at the widest setting and roll your dough through. (I cut my dough into strips so that it was easier to feed through). Keep adjusting the rollers until you reach the desired thickness of your noodles. For my spaghetti, I only went down to 5.

Once you have your dough rolled, allow it to rest again for 10-15 minutes on a floured surface, so that it will go through the cutters easily. 

After it has rested, flour both sides of your dough and send it through the cutter.

Once your noodles are cut, you need to let them dry. On this first run, I did not let my noodles dry quite properly and they were not quite al dente when I cooked them. As I do not have a lot of space in my kitchen to lay the noodles out on a surface properly, I will certainly be getting a pasta drying rack to help me out next time!

After your noodles have completed drying, you'll add them to boiling water for just 2-3 minutes until they become al dente. 

The Rest of it...

I followed this Mario Batali recipe for red sauce. I'm sure it's a great recipe. I don't know what it is, but I just can't make red sauce. 

Here's my sauce just before simmering.

As always, bison is the star of my meatballs. Usually, I like to use breadcrumbs instead of oatmeal, but I keep forgetting to buy it! Anyway, here's the recipe again for these!

And that's it! Here's my finished product once again!

If you're interested in trying out homemade noodles yourself, I've put some recommendations on pasta machines and drying racks below. Happy cooking!