Everyone loves lasagna right? Right? I mean if you don't but whyyyyy????? There is nothing like lasagna, the layers of sauce, meat, and cheese (I'm drooling just writing this!) however.... I think lasagna should be made from scratch and I don't mean just the sauce and meat, I mean the noodles! Yes the NOODLES! The store bought are great if you're in a pinch but homemade fresh pasta that melts in your mouth just hits different. So here I am telling you my nonnas recipe on how to make your own lasagna noodles because it really is super easy with the right ingredients and tools!
I'm going to try to keep this as simple as possible, with a lot of detail. I promise once you make these bad boys you will NEVER want to buy lasagna noodles again.
What you'll need;
5 cups of semolina
5 eggs
1/3 cup of boiling water
1/3 cup of all purpose flour
Manual/ electric (kitchen aide mixer attachment) lasagna noodle maker
Pot of boiling water
A bowl of ice water
A table with table cloth on it
So here we have 5 cups of semolina rimacinata (which basically means it's been grinded down until it's super fine) this is honestly the best semolina I've used especially when we get to kneading it into a dough. This is the Molisanna brand but you can use any semolina you can find.
Then we're going to make a well and add 5 eggs. So remember this is a 1:1 ratio so if you decide to do 3 cups of semolina you would do 3 eggs. 5 cups makes a ton of noodles but I typically do this in bulk so whatever I don't use I end up freezing. Then you're going to grab a fork and start beating the egg and slowly incorporate the semolina until it gets to a crumbling texture/dough like texture.
Once our eggs are all incorporated into the semolina it should look like the picture above. We're going to then slowly add 1/3 cup of boiling water (like I mean what you would use to make tea okay) and we are going to CAREFULLY incorporate that into the dough slowly mixing the dough by hand (yes by hand because all the nonni's have super power hands and apparently cannot feel hot water or anything hot like nothing scolds them) we are going to form a beautiful dough with this extremely HOT water. You may not need to use the whole 1/3 cup so do this by eye and the way the dough feels. (Here's the unconventional way by going by feeling)
Once our beautiful lasagna dough is formed we're going to sprinkle some flour (the unconventional way) to our liking to ensure nothing sticks so we can shape this baby out. (1/3 cup Approx but probably less)
If you have the time you can let the dough rest covered in plastic wrap for about 30 minutes. I typically just get on and start making the noodles.
Roll out your dough and cut into slices like the picture above to pass through your lasagna noodle maker (whether a manual or electrical one like the kitchen aide attachment is my favourite)
You're then going to pass the piece of dough through the maker starting at the largest size making your way down to the smallest which is typically a 1 or 2. Feel free to cut the noodle in half or the ends to make it more into a rectangular shape as well to make your life easier so you don't have these long noodles that won't even fit into your baking pan later on. With the noddles that you discard you can add to the next dough you're going to put through or start a new piece to put through the machine just make sure it's a decent size and that no piece of dough goes to waste.
Here is what your noodle will look like. Rule of thumb if it's not see through it's too thick. This piece is still pretty long so I'd cut it in half to make the perfect size.
So while I'm making my noodles I also have a boiling pot on the go and an ice bath ready. You'll want to boil your lasagna noodle for 15 seconds and then throw it into the ice bath for another 10-15 seconds and then you want to lay your noodle on a flat surface (on a table cloth preferred) to let it dry out.
Side note: they don't have to be dried out until they are hard to use them, you can start to assemble your lasagna once there's no water on the noodles. Whatever you don't use you can store in a tupperware lined with parchment and seran wrap in the freezer up to 6 months.
Here is what it looks like when they are complete! And do you know what the best part of knowing how to make a lasagna noodle is? This is your base to make linguine, fettuccini, ravioli etc! So have fun and explore pasta making, it's fun, it's messy it's therapeutic. When I really miss my Nonna this is what I do. Make something she really loved.
Buon appetito 👩🏻🍳😘
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