It’s no secret that I loooove noodles. Especially thick, chewy, handmade noodles. I never knew how easy they were to make at home until I came across this recipe by Woks of Life.

Yes, you can buy fresh noodles from the supermarket, but making your own at home is much more rewarding. It doesn’t require very many ingredients at all. Got flour, water and salt in your pantry? You’re all set.

There’s a bit of elbow work involved but it’s well worth the effort. The most laborious part of the process is rolling out the dough, which is actually quite therapeutic. You can roll out the dough using a pasta machine, but hand rolling it will give you more rustic, irregular noodles.

After the dough is rolled out to the right thickness, fold it over a couple of times to make it easier to cut with a knife. I like thicker noodles, so ours were about half a centimetre wide. It’s okay if they’re not all the same width – these are meant to be rustic hand-cut noodles after all! They expand a little while cooking, so keep this in mind when cutting into your desired width. 

While you’re working dust any cut noodles with extra flour so that they don’t stick to each other or the table.

These don’t take very long to cook – about two to three minutes in boiling water will be enough, depending on the thickness. Set aside some of the noodle cooking water if you’re making my pork mince sauce (see recipe below), as the starch from the water will help emulsify the sauce.

I paired the noodles with a really simple one pot pork mince sauce inspired by this recipe. Once cooked, spoon the noodles straight into a big bowl and toss in the sauce. Don’t worry about draining the noodles, as a little extra water will help the sauce stick to them.

These are best eaten straight away, so slurp them up while hot!

You can find the handmade noodle recipe I used here. This link contains detailed instructions and handy tips I followed to make my noodles. The pork sauce I made to go with them is below – let me know what you think if you decide to give it a try!

Pork mince sauce

Makes enough sauce for about 4 servings of noodles

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 1/2 brown onion, finely chopped
• 500g pork mince
• 4 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon chilli flakes (add more if you like it spicy)
• 1.5 tablespoons vinegar
• 2 spring onions, finely sliced
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 cup noodle cooking water
• 2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds

Method

1. Heat 1 tablespoon of the vegetable oil in medium saucepan and sautee onion and garlic until translucent.
2. Add pork mince, stirring to break up the meat. Cook the mince until nicely browned.
3. Add the soy sauce, remaining oil, chilli flakes, vinegar and cumin to the pan, mix everything together and cook the sauce for 1-2 minutes until fragrant.
4. Stir in the noodle cooking water and cook for a further 1 minute until the sauce comes together. Taste and add more chilli flakes, if desired. Once ready, take off the heat and stir in the sesame seeds and spring onion. Keep warm until ready to serve.