ETA (07/31/2017): Picture of Mákos tészta added
Whether or not you’re on a budget, pasta is the start of many amazing dishes that don’t make you feel like you’re tight on cash.
I ended up making the usual ‘boring’ pasta dish because I had leftovers in the fridge that I wanted to use up … cooked hot Italian sausages and jarred pasta sauce from making a couple of pizzas on Saturday. And, because I’ve already made several heavy Hungarian dishes and both my two other options were also Hungarian. I hope to make them sometime in the next week and post pictures then.
These are the Hungarian noodle dishes I was GOING to make.
Mákos tészta (sweet poppy seed noodles) …
or Túrós czusza (curd cheese and bacon noodles) or Kaposztás tészta (cabbage with noodles)
Which one do you think I should make??
Instead of using dry pasta, I made fresh egg noodles with semolina … just enough for 2 servings (scaled down to use 1 egg) and am re-posting the recipe here. It’s very easy and you don’t even need a pasta machine to make them though I did for the convenience.
Fresh Semolina and Egg Pasta – 1 lb of pasta, enough for 4 servings
1 cup (170-180 gm) all-purpose flour
1 cup (200 gm) semolina flour
a pinch salt (1/8 tsp)
3 large eggs
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Sift together all-purpose flour, semolina flour, and pinch of salt. (Remove about 1/4 cup to a separate bowl and use it to knead with.)
On a clean surface, make a mound out of the flour mixture then make a deep well in center.
Break the eggs into the well and add olive oil. Whisk eggs very gently with a fork, gradually incorporating flour from the sides of the well. When mixture becomes too thick to mix with a fork, begin kneading with your hands.
Knead dough for 8 to 12 minutes, until it is smooth and supple. (To know when you’ve kneaded it enough, form the dough into a ball and cut it in half. The inside shouldn’t have pockets/holes in it but look nice and compact.)
Dust dough and work surface with semolina as needed to keep dough from becoming sticky. Wrap dough tightly in plastic and allow it to rest at room temperature for 1 hour.
Roll out the dough with a pasta machine or a rolling pin to desired thickness (<1/16th of an inch or 1 mm).
Let air dry for 10-15 min before cutting, especially with your pasta machine cutters. Cut into your favorite style of noodle or stuff with your favorite filling to make ravioli.
Bring water to a boil in a large pot, adding about a tbsp of salt.
Cook pasta until it is tender but not mushy, 1 to 8 minutes (2 1/2 minutes in this case) depending on the thickness. Drain immediately and toss with your favorite sauce.
Speaking of pizza … here’s what I made.
Cooking is Fun ... Really!! 
I don’t eat a huge amount of pasta. Your egg noodles look amazing.
I enjoy my pasta though it’s not something I grew up eating either. Fine egg noodles in soup was more common at our house. My mom made amazing tasting chicken noodle soup. I think she added parsnips to the stock when cooking it.
I’m trying to get Mum to write me her recipes on her iPad. So far I have half a dozen.
The best thing is to be able to sit in the kitchen with your mom, grand-mom, aunts etc and watch and write down the recipes as they are being cooked. So often, memories are awakened and stories, funny and sad are told in association with the dishes. My biggest regret is not doing that when I had the chance. I DID write some of them down (guessing at the amounts as she was making them) in a green spiral bound lined note book, about 20-25 yrs ago, but the book was misplaced.
My mom never measured anything. They didn’t have ‘measuring cups’ but used eating soup and tea spoons, household cups, pots, ladles to estimate amounts to be used. And lots of visual cues as to how batters and doughs should look and feel when baking.
Mum has all her handwritten Cook books but I’d rather she kept her mind active by typing them for me. We live in two different states and she no longer cooks because of allergies so I want the recipes for the memories and to help Mum’s mind
That’s a very good idea. My mom suffered from early onset of Alzheimer’s/dementia for her last few years. There were many things she remembered but some things … well, it was heart-breaking.
I don’t think I’ve ever air dried my noodles before cutting. I’ll have to try it out. 🙂
My pasta machine cutters work better when the dough is a bit drier. They are paired and the inner one doesn’t cut them apart so I have to pull the pairs manually afterward.
Aha! I have an attachment for my kitchen aide but only used it once for lasagna noodles. I have been rolling my noodles and cutting them with a pizza cutter for years. I will have to remember this trick when I try the pasta maker next!
I was just thinking of making a small batch of pasta for lasagna sheets. I think it’s cheaper than buying a package of dried lasagna sheets and I have a jar of pasta sauce in the cupboard and a bag of grated mozzarella in the freezer. Debating on whether to make a veggie version but the only veggies I have are carrots and broccolini. And a box of frozen spinach. 🙂