The Daring Cooks make noodles. By hand, of course!

This month, Steph of Stephfood challenged us to make noodles or gnocchi or spätzle,  but without the use of motorized machines. I rarely make fresh pasta, so this was a nice incentive to do so. In fact, it reminded me that I could shop after work and have fresh pasta on the table in time for dinner, with not too much effort and not too many dirty dishes. That's just what I did one afternoon: I picked up basil, eggs and I looked for my favourite brand of ricotta but couldn't find it. In a fit of pique, I bought a large carton of milk and decided to make my own. 

The dried pasta

I made the pasta dough, set it aside, then made the ricotta and left it to drain. I rolled the pasta very thinly and cut it with the wavy cutter, then I hung it on my laundry rack to dry a bit. I shaved some asparagus into thin ribbons and tossed it in with the cooking pasta for a minute. I topped it with a few scoops of the very creamy ricotta and some basil oil, made by pureeing blanched basil and olive oil. I can assure you that it was delicious, but you may be wondering why there is no asparagus in the picture above. Well, just as I was plating the pasta, a thunderstorm rolled through and turned a bright early evening into a pitch dark night. The storm was over in 30 minutes or so, but that was too long to leave me with a plate of hot pasta. So, you get the next day version, with the pasta I dried thoroughly and no asparagus. It was really tasty too. So tasty that I had it for breakfast in the midst of frantically packing for 2 months away for work.

Just this week I decided to make the spätzle recipe that was also included in the challenge. I kept it simple and tossed it in lots of chopped parsley and topped it with onion bread crumbs and sage crisped in brown butter. I served it atop roasted green beans and green garlic and it was such a simple and satisfying meal. It was also nice that I could easily make it in a borrowed kitchen. 

Thanks for a great challenge Steph! I can't wait for the next one. Oh, wait--I'm hosting it! What will it be?? 

Find the full challenge PDF here, including recipes. I used this recipe for the ricotta (with ½ cup cream).

Blog-checking lines: Steph from Stephfood was our Daring Cooks' July hostess.  Steph challenged us to make homemade noodles without the help of a motorized pasta machine.  She provided us with recipes for Spätzle and Fresh Egg Pasta as well as a few delicious sauces to pair our noodles with!