Cool beans! Going to have to give this a shot now! Thanks guys! The one thing I've been dying to try is the "specialty" noodles... Saw some at a general store (fly fishing flies, homemade breads/noodles, and all kinds of stuff near a camping place. Anyways, the noodles had basils, sundried tomato, etc. For about three years now, I've been wanting to make my own (I couldn't choke down the cost of $6/lb for noodles. So, how would you go about adding that extra "junk" in there?
Noodles is easy. Usually, one egg will be put in the kitchenaid mixer with the beater attachment on it. (as opposed to the whip or hook - Kitchenaids sound rather ferocious, don't they?) Anyway, one egg, a bit of salt, a tablespoon of chicken broth or other flavored liquid. If it is noodles for chicken or turkey soup, then usually a half spoonful of dried and ground sage or basil will be added to it. Adding chunky things will make it difficult to run it through the noodle machine but if you are rolling them out by hand, you could add in all sorts of chunky things like sun dried tomatoes, crushed olives, shredded basil leaves, etc. Maybe a bit of oil, about a half teaspoon full or so. Mix that up and add enough flour that it becomes a really stiff dough. Run that through a noodle maker or roll it out flat with a rolling pin on a floured surface. Either send the flat sheets of rolled dough through the cutter attachment on the pasta machine or roll them up and slice them. Then unroll them for the noodles. They can either be used fresh or dried.
If you plan on making a lot of noodles, you can make a rolling noodle cutter. Basically take a bunch of metal washers, a metal rod and some spacers of some sort - maybe a bit of tubing cut into pieces. Put a washer on the rod, then a bit of tubing, then a washer, etc. Secure them on there somehow (get creative) then when you have your sheet of noodles cut out, just use your noodle cutter rod instead of a rolling pin. Someone who likes to turn wood might be able to make a pasta cutting rolling pin, perhaps.