Home-Made Noodles (Domáce Rezance)
Ingredients: 1lb of all-purpose flour, 1 egg, dash of salt, water
Prep Time: 30 minutes
My grandma makes the best ever chicken noodle soup. I think her secret is in that she makes her own noodles. In this recipe, I show you how you too can make your own pasta. Turns out, it’s quite easy!
Make the Dough
Start by combing flour (múka), salt (soľ) and the egg (vajce). Add about a small cup’s worth of water (voda). It’s better to start with less water and add more as needed. Knead well in the container and also on a floured surface until you end up with a smooth, silky dough. It should not be watery. Roll into a tube few inches in diameter and cut into three sections.
Then take one of the pieces and place it onto a floured section of your working board. First flatten it with your hand. Then roll it few times with the rolling pin using short back-and-forth motion. Turn the dough over and keep rolling. Repeat. You want both sides to be nicely covered in flour, otherwise the dough will stick either to the board or to the rolling pin. So add flour as needed. Keep rolling, dusting with flour, and flipping over until you have a thin pancake no more than a millimeter thick.
Dry it
Place the dough onto a cloth and set aside for some 5-10 minutes. In the mean time, work on the other pieces. You are letting the dough dry a bit so it becomes easier to cut. Don’t dry it too long otherwise it hardens and becomes too brittle.
Cut Noodles
And now the fun part: cutting noodles. Dust the top surface with flour and slice the circle into rectangular sections about 1.5 inches wide. The width of these rectangles determines the length of your final homemade noodles. Stack few strips on top of each other (the flour you just added will prevent them from sticking) and with a sharp knife, cut the noodles.
Make them pretty wide for poppy seed noodles (rezance s makom), and much thinner for the chicken noodle soup.
Turns out, there is also a gadget that will do the cutting for you – a little mill for noodles (mlynček na rezance). To use this device, you cut the rectangles into smaller pieces. Now the length of the rectangle will determine the length of the resulting pasta. Noodles from this mill look quite similar to the ones my grandma cut by hand but were round in cross-section.
Cooking Noodles
When it comes to cooking noodles for a clear soup, it’s important to cook the noodles separately. Otherwise, the flour will make the soup milky. When pasta is ready (cooking time will depend on the size), strain and place the noodles into another bowl containing cold water.
Let sit for few minutes and then strain again into another container. Add a spoonful of oil to make the noodles even more delicious. You can refrigerate them like this, or use them right away in the chicken noodle soup.
I make them same way, only I don’t use any water and those are noodles for soup. Noodles made with water are used for poppy seed or walnut noodles.
I like your pictures. Grandma’s hands look so cool! I will try your recipe one day.
My Grandmother made these noodles for her chicken soup and I couldn’t get enough of the noodles. I have her board and the knife she used now I have the receipe. Thank you
I am Canadian/Slovak and carry on the tradition of making many slovak dishes & pasta from scratch.
I now make my own noodles with flour and egg only and also add a tiny bit of tumeric for color since store bought egg yolks are pretty pale.
I started out use a hand crank Marcato machine and then when I could afford, I finally bought the KitchenAid roller & cutter attachments. NOW I can make noodles with a few dozen eggs a day! It’s so much fun!
My mother made home made noodles for soup all the time, as did my baba. Soup tastes better with home made noodles! My mother’s recipe was for a very, very stiff dough which she then grated on a box grater. Be careful not to hurt your fingers on the grater! Boil in salted water and drain. Then rinse in cold water and add some oil, as you said. It’s just incredible with home made, or commercial, soup of any kind, not just chicken! The recipe for the dough is about 1 cup of flour with one or two tablespoons of water if you want to make eggless noodles.
Tim
My Slovak grandma used to make the grated noodles. We called it cheer (american spelling, I don’t know the Slovak spelling).. We loved it. I make it at holiday time for my homemade soup. Everyone loves it.
They are “drobce” or “čipetky”.
http://varecha.pravda.sk/recepty/cipetky-fotorecept/13383-recept.html
Oh, I forgot to mention in the recipe–when the dough is mixed, ket set in the fridge for at least an hour. Then grate!
Tim
I made soup, rozky and home made noodles today for supper. I followed this recipe and it works nicely. Home made noodles in home made soup–a combination that can’t be beat! And it all tastes so much better than store bought. My son said that at the table today–he said my rozky were just incredible and the insides were so much better than store bought bread. He’s right! Thanks for everything you do on this site.
Tim
I love the grated noodles! My mom used to make them all the time, much quicker than the machine noodles. I find that using durum semolina (more coarse than a/p flour) is best for this kind of preparation.
by the way… your site is fantastic. I love it. I too make noodles so much that I have a race… “can I make the noodles before the water comes to a boil?” usually I win. the grandkids have fun doing them too. Of course if I do the dough a 1/2 hr ahead it is easier to work with but sometimes we don’t have the time.
I enjoy your website. It brings back so many memories of the food and pastry my grandmother and mother made. I still make some of it.
On Christmas we used to have a noodle in our chicken soup called ciga. It looked sort of like a cork screw. Do you know how to form those noodles?
Gadget on domestic production of pasta “spindles”.
http://www.zasielkovyobchod.sk/eshop-strojek-na-testoviny-27065.html
http://vybavimto323.sk/sk/ine-cestoviny/515-emka-bezvajecne-vretena-400g.html
Hi, can you tell me where you bought the noodle cutting machine. Using the machine will save the wear and tear on my hands. Appreciate any help you can provide.
Thank you,
Ingrid
Ingrid, here is one:
http://www.webstaurantstore.com/pasta-noodle-maker-machine/672GN001.html?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=GoogleShopping&gclid=CN7ah_OKwcICFUto7AodUScA8A
The noodle machine does not cut as fine as how my 94 year old mother used to cut. My Aunt has the same machine that you are showing, she tried to get the same machine for me. May I ask where you got just the noodle cutter from??? I have the other machine and it is just not the same.
My 96 year old aunt Mary ( still cooking and doing everything around her lovely home) makes a grated noodle for her beef soup using a cheese grater, the back side I belive. I want to make it and surprise her. But I don’t know how. Nor do I have the recipe. I think the dough has to be on the hard side in order to be able to grate. Dose anyone know about this? Can you help? I know it’s a Slovak dish. I am Italian. Thank you. Shirl
I want to make a grated type pustina for my beef soup. My 96 year old aunt Mary makes them all the time. I can call her, but I wan to surprise her and make soup and the grated pasta myself, and have her over for dinner. Does anyone know the grated Slovak pasta I am referring to? Can you give me the recipe and method? I know it’s a hard dough, and she uses the back of a hand cheese grater. Thank you. Shirl
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/mario-batali/grated-pasta-in-broth-pasta-grattata-in-brodo-recipe.html
Would this be the recipe that you are looking for? I also was searching for the similar recipe that my grandmother made and found this one.
Hi Shirl. I understand ‘pastima’ is a tiny pasta made of egg and wheat flour. And that is what we call “lievanka”– a kind of pasta one may add to tons of soups. The simple way to make it is a combination of 60g (3 tbs) of semolina flour and 1 egg. Mix well and let sit for 30 mins or so. Push through a grater using wooden spoon. Try it with a fresh or frozen peas soup, delicious as well. Wishing aunt Mary and you best of health love and happiness.
How do I dry the extra noodles to use later.
I am so glad I found your sight! I learned from my baba and mother but didn’t get it all down like I wish I had…thank you!!!!