Scandinavian Inspired Sausage and Noodles with Emmentaler Cream Sauce
This past spring, we welcomed seven new laying hens to our flock. They were in a sale bin at the feed store, labeled as Gold Laced Wyandottes though we were heavily skeptical as their appearance did not match the description. Being this is our seventh summer raising chickens, we have become less inclined to refreshing our flock with day old chicks and prefer older chickens. Thus, these chicks looked about three weeks old, so we were happy to care for them for a shorter amount of time in the brooder and welcome their eggs earlier into the summer season. We quickly discovered that they had fluffy plumage growing out of the tops of their heads and speckled golden feathers. After some research, we learned that they were an English breed of Easter Eggers. We know this for sure because they have been laying beautiful blue-green eggs for a few weeks now!
Our flock now has 15 layers, so that means we are swimming in beautiful pastured eggs. After a few weeks of business in the kitchen preserving the garden harvests, we seemingly were left with an overabundance of eggs in the fridge. Eggs can last a rather long time. Did you know that the eggs in the grocery store are often 1-2 months old? Crazy, right? While that is fine and dandy for the farmer who gets fresh eggs each and every day, they still need to be used up. Mom and I decided to take a stab at making a bulk set of pasta noodles to dry and save for the next couple of months.
Making egg noodles is rather simple. All you need are two ingredients: eggs and flour. The ratio that I use is 1:2 or 1 cup of flour to 2 eggs. On this day, we made 24 batches of pasta! That left us with some experimentation in terms of how we wanted to cut and store it.
We ended up making some lasagna sheets, fettuccine, linguine, and some herbal stuffed pasta as well. We tried using fresh basil and rose petals to see how we liked them!
To store the pasta, we coated it in flour and wrapped the cut noodles into nests. These nests were left to sit and dry for 24-48 hours and then stored in plastic bags. We will see how long they last! The internet recommends the noodles lasting about 2 months, though egg noodles sold in the store can last up to 2 years. I am not sure if this shorter period is because they are made at home and might not be fully dried? Either way, I am looking forward to see how they do dried rather than being stored in our freezer!
During all of this noodle cutting, we obviously needed to try a few! I cooked up some of the pasta stuffed with basil leaves and turned it into this dish with a German-style spiced sausage and creamy Emmentaler cheese sauce.
ingredients & recipe:
FRESH BASIL PASTA:
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 large eggs
2 cups fresh basil leaves
GERMAN SPICED SAUSAGE:
1 pound pork sausage
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried parsley
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp ground mustard
1/4 tsp white pepper
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
CREAMY EMMENTALER SAUCE:
4 tbsp salted butter
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tsp fresh thyme
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 cup Emmentaler cheese, shredded
1/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated
DIRECTIONS:
Begin by making the noodles. Scoop the flour out onto the counter and make a wide well in the center. Crack the eggs into the well and whisk them with a fork, pulling up flour from the bottom of the well and not from the sides. This will help keep the eggs from running down the sides. Once the eggs have become well incorporated into the flour, begin kneading the pasta dough until it becomes smooth and no longer dry. It will be stiff, and that is perfect. If it is too soft, it needs more flour. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let it rest for about 15 minutes on the counter. If you cannot cut the pasta today, it can stay in the fridge for 1-2 days.
When you are ready to cut the pasta, unwrap the disc and cut it into 4 equal pieces. Flour each piece generously and put it through a pasta roller. I use the pasta attachments for my kitchenaid mixer. Roll out the noodles to the number 5 setting, or until you can easily see your hands through the dough. Brush generously with flour and let the pasta sheets rest for 15 minutes before cutting. Once the sheets have rested, cut the noodles into your desired thickness. I made this into fettuccine noodles. Allow the noodles to rest another 15 minutes before boiling.
Meanwhile, season the sausage. Mix all of the ingredients for the sausage together in a medium size bowl. Heat a skillet over medium-high heat and brown the sausage on all sides. Crumble the sausage and continue to cook until it is no longer pink.
As the sausage cooks, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add a large pinch of salt and boil the noodles over medium heat until they are al dente, about 7 minutes.
Start making the sauce. Add the butter to the sausage and melt. Coat the sausage with flour and stir until it becomes thick and has a nutty aroma. Pour in the milk and bring to a boil. It should thicken quickly. Stir in the heavy cream and bring to a boil. Season with thyme and salt. If desired, thin the sauce with some of the pasta water.
Remove the pan from heat and stir in the cheeses.
To serve, place the sausage and cream sauce in the bottom of a bowl and top with the cooked noodles. Grate more cheese over the top, if desired.
I am calling this dish “Scandinavian Inspired” because it really doesn’t feel like an Italian pasta dish at all. The addition of a herbal, earthy sausage and creamy Emmentaler cheese made it feel like something Nordic or even German. I was trying to research the history of pasta in these areas, but came up a bit short in my small time to do so. I would like to learn more about these regions’ cultural dishes, as they are a part of my heritage, though a very disconnected one.
I hope that you enjoy this dish! It is light while still feeling like a delightful comfort food.
xoxo Kayla
