Pappardelle Noodles with Italian Sausage Ragu

After hearing how Daniel concocted a homemade pasta and how a co-worker made a great homemade spaghetti sauce, I decided to try my hand at pappardelle noodles with an italian sausage ragu.  I started with just under 2 cups of all-purpose flour, just under 1 cup of semolina flour, 3 eggs, and 3 egg yolks.

Mmmmmmm...Breakfast of Champions

After kneading the dough into an even consistency, I let that rest overnight in the refrigerator.  For the ragu, I started by sauteing chopped onions, garlic, roasted red peppers, and a pinch of salt in olive oil.  I then added tomato paste, marsala wine, crushed tomatoes, chicken stock, basil, oregano, thyme, pepper, and a bulk chicken italian sausage to the mixture.

After reducing the heat, I left this to simmer over the course of 4-5 hours.  The end result is a deep, rich red sauce.  The house smelled like delicious sausage for days.

The ragu was placed with the pasta dough in the refrigerator overnight for dinner the next evening.  In order to finish the pasta, the dough was rolled through a pasta machine, starting with the highest setting and finishing at the third to lowest (thinnest) setting.  Between each rolling, the dough was dusted with flour.  I prefer a thicker pappardelle noodle, which is why I decided not to go down to the thinnest setting.  After rolling the dough, the pasta was cut into 12-inch sheets.  The sheets were individually rolled, sliced into 3/4 - 1 inch strips, and then unrolled.  The pasta was dusted with flour a final time and dropped into boiling water for 2-3 minutes.  When the noodles were finished boiling and drained, they were immediately served and topped with shaved parmesan cheese and basil. 

What was amazing to me was how easy it was to make fresh homemade noodles.  My next attempt, I will probably adjust the all-purpose to semolina flour ratio to see if that makes any difference.  All-in-all, I was very pleased with my first attempt at homemade pasta and can easily see doing this again in the future.