Homemade Chicken Noodle Soup
Comfort food can encompass so many different varieties of foods depending on your culture or ethnicity. Meatloaf, pasta, mac and cheese all delicious and oh so comforting. This soup takes me back to my childhood and was the starter for almost every meal we had with my Italian family. Homemade chicken soup with pasta and escarole. It’s warm and comforting and delicious. I like to grate a little pecorino romano cheese on top and for me it’s heaven. If I have time I like to make the pasta for this soup but it’s perfectly fine with commercially prepared pasta of whatever size and shape you like. Making the chicken stock is so easy, basically throwing everything in a pot and let it cook for hours. The pasta takes a little work but is so worth it in the end.
Chicken Stock:
1 whole chicken, organic if possible
1 whole onion peeled and cut in half
2 stalks celery cut in half
2 cloves garlic
2 big carrots cut into big chunks
handful of cleaned parsley and whatever herbs you like to add
enough water to cover the chicken
salt and pepper to taste
4 cups torn or chopped well cleaned escarole
noodles or whatever type of pasta you like to add to the soup. About 2 1/2 cups cooked pasta
Add everything except the escarole and noodles to stock pot and boil for 2-3 hours on med/high heat or lower heat if you want to cook all day. When done remove chicken and vegetables from pot, add the escarole and cook for 20 minutes. In separate pot boil your noodles and add to chicken soup when they are done, Cut the carrots on the diagonal and add back to soup, You can serve with some of the boiled chicken in the bowl and I like to grate some romano cheese on top.
Pasta:
2 1/2 cups AP flour
4 large eggs
1 tbs water
2 tsp olive oil
On work surface dump flour and make a well in the middle, add the eggs, water and olive oil and beat with a fork, working in a circle incorporate the flour until you have a cohesive dough, add more flour if your dough is too sticky. Knead until dough is smooth, wrap in plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes.
Or by food processor (which I did) place flour in bowl then add the eggs, oil and water and pulse until it comes together into a ball. Turn onto lightly floured work surface and knead until smooth cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes.
If rolling by hand roll dough with rolling pin as thin as you can, the dough should be almost translucent. Fold and cut into thin strips like linguine. If using a pasta machine follow manufacturers directions. NOTE: You will only need half of the pasta for this, wrap the other half of the dough well and freeze for later use).
Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil, when water is boiling add salt (the water should be salty like sea water) Add the pasta stirring to make sure each piece is separated and cook for 2 minutes.
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