Blog-a-Recipe - Kreplach

I usually like to blog a recipe on Sunday, but had too much going on. But that didn't stop me from cooking this past Saturday. After you try this quick and simple-to-make noodle dough just one time, you'll want to treat your family to fresh home-made noodles often, and can use them in chicken and dumplings, with marinara, or in other soups and stews.

Spicy Sausage Kreplach in Onion Soup
[Modified - recipes found in The Joy of Cooking]

Soup:
Top and peel 4 fresh onions.
Chop coarsely and carmelize in 1T butter.
Place onions in a soup pot and add 4-5 cups water or broth.
Season with salt and a sprig of rosemary.
Cook over low heat for 2-3 hours, removing rosemary after 1 hour.
Remove most/all of the onions.
[My onions were pulled fresh that day from Freddy Wood's garden. You can complete this soup by topping with slices of toasted bread and grated cheese and bake, as for standard onion soup recipes - I'm just interested in the onion broth to cook the Kreplach in here.]

Kreplach:
Filling:
Brown 1/2 C spicy pan sausage with
1/3 C each minced carrot and onion.
Season during cooking with salt, black pepper and red pepper flakes.
Set aside when cooked.
[I used the green top of one of the fresh onions.]

Dough (makes ~20 pastries - a good basic noodle dough recipe):
Place 2/3C flour in a large mixing bowl.
Lightly beat 1 egg with 1/2 tsp salt and 1T each water and oil.
Mix by hand, then knead for 10 minutes.
Rest kneaded dough for 1 hour.
Roll out dough to 1/8" thick.
Cut rolled dough into 3" squares.
Place about 1T Filling onto the center of each square.
Fold one dough corner to its opposite over filling.
Seal pastry edges with the tines of a fork.
Dry each pastry on parchment for 15 minutes each side.
Gently float Kreplach one-by-one into boiling Onion Soup.
Cook Kreplach for 7-10 minutes, turning gently with a slotted spoon.

Ladle 6-7 Kreplach into a soup bowl along with a portion of the Onion Soup broth. Sprinkle with grated Parmesan or Romano cheese and serve immediately with sliced French bread.

Unless you can roll out dough into perfect rectangles, there will be edges you've trimmed off when cutting squares to make the pastries with. Not to worry. Just slice them into 1/4" strips, dry them with the Kreplach, and then toss them into the onion broth too. They're wonderful and won't be wasted.

This recipe turned out really well. The Clog-wife really enjoyed it as a lunch following a 2-hour dance class. I had no idea making home-made noodles was so easy or so rewarding.