In a large bowl, mix the flour and salt together. Add the water and use a spoon or chopsticks to stir everything together. I find that chopsticks really get it going easily, so if you have chopsticks, use them. You can also use your fingers to gently start mixing things together.
Once the water has been absorbed into the flour, use your hands to start gathering all the loose flour into the dough. You want to really grab at the dough and squish it together to get it to start sticking. The dough will seem extremely dry in the beginning, but no need to worry — it’s supposed to look like that! Continue to work the flour into the dough. This part of the process should take a couple of minutes and then you’ll have a lump of shaggy looking dough.
When the dough is pretty much sticking together, turn it out onto whatever surface you plan on rolling it out on — marble counter, marble slab, pastry board. You may be VERY tempted to add extra flour to the surface, but you don’t need to do that. Too much flour will make the noodles tough. Once you’ve turned out the dough onto your surface, continue kneading it for about 5-8 minutes. The dough will start off seeming quite dry, but the more you work it, the smoother it will get.
When the dough ball is relatively smooth, set it inside a bowl, cover with plastic wrap or a lid and let it rise for about 1 hour. It should be good to go after 45 minutes, so let it rise for at least that.
Once the dough has rested, take it out of the bowl, and knead it for a minute or two. You’ll notice the surface of the dough is much smoother now.
Sprinkle some flour onto a large baking sheet and set it aside. This is where you’ll put the dough once you’ve cut it.
Generously flour your work surface. You want a good amount of flour to prevent the dough from sticking.
Now, if you have a pasta maker by all means use it to cut the dough into fettuccine size. If you don’t have a pasta maker, keep on reading!
Divide the dough into 4 smaller pieces. Keep 1 piece out and put the other 3 pieces back in the bowl and cover so the dough doesn’t dry out.
Shape this piece of dough into an oval and roll it out into a rectangle that is about 12 inches long and 5 1/2 to 6 inches wide.
Honestly, the hardest part of rolling out the dough is just getting it started. It will want to shrink back at you, but there’s a great way to help with that. The trick is to gently press down on one end of the dough as you use a rolling pin to stretch out the other end. And then do the same thing on the other side. If you find the dough sticking, just add more flour — sprinkle over the dough or over the rolling pin. Or both, as needed.
Once you have rolled out the dough into a rectangle shape (and, don’t worry if it’s not a perfect rectangle — this are hand cut and will still be delicious!), lightly brush flour over the dough. Then, fold the dough into thirds.
Grab one short end of the dough and fold up about a third of it towards the center. Then, fold the other short end towards the center so that you now have 3 overlapping layers of dough.
Next, rotate the dough 90 degrees so that the folds are on the top and bottom, sort of like an envelope. Use a sharp knife (not a pastry cutter) to cut the dough into 1/2-inch pieces. Make sure your cuts are perpendicular to the folds. Gently unravel each individual noodle. Then, gather all the noodles and make fold them in half into a small, loose bundle. Transfer the noodles to the floured baking sheet.
Continue rolling out and cutting the remaining dough into noodles.
To cook the noodles — they cook just like you would cook pasta, except much faster because they’re fresh. Bring a large pot of water to bowl, salt it generously and use a spider to gently add the noodles. I cook 2 batches at a time, so they don’t get too crowded. They noodles are done after 2-4 minutes — you’ll know when they float to the top. Use a spider to remove them and place them in a large bowl full of ice water — this will stop them from cooking. After you cook all the batches, drain the noodles, return to pot and drizzle with a little bit of sesame oil to prevent them from sticking together.