I have already presented the giouvetsi recipe twice in this blog  for meat lovers and vegetarians. Both versions were made with kritharaki- orzo. This time i decided to use hylopites, a kind of egg pasta cut into very small squares. The most exciting thing was that i really wanted to make the pasta myself, which is not something simple since this pasta recipe is slighlty different from the regular pasta.

1 whole chicken cut into 6 pieces (2 kg or more)
2 medium onions, finelly cut
500 gr handmade hylopites (recipe below)
3-4 very ripe tomatoes grated  or 2 tbsp tomato paste
1/2 cup olive oil
1 cinammon stick
salt and pepper
1. In a large saucepan, pour the olive oil and saute the onion. Add the chicken and cook for 15- 20 minutes. Add the grated tomatoes or the tomato puree and 2 cups of hot water. Cook for 20 more minutes.
2. Then pour the chicken in an ovenproof deep tin or a clay tin and add the hylopites by adding 4 cups  hot water.
3. Bake the giouvetsi for 40-50 minutes in a preheated oven. Serve it hot with some grated hard cheese like kefalotyri or parmezan.

I would like to thank Xanthi – fellow blogger and friend- for letting me translate her traditional hylopites’ recipe – written at the Asproulas’ recipes blog.

Handmade eggpasta -Hylopites 
(from the Asproulas’ recipes blog
3 kg strong flour- ’00’ type
1/2 kg fine semolina
1 1/2 goat’s milk
15 organic eggs
1/2 tbs salt
1. In a large bowl, mix flour , salt and semolina. Form a little whole and add the eggs , slightly beaten. Then gradually pour the milk and mix with your hands to form a elastic but  dough. You have to knead the dough for about 20 minutes or so. Form a ball and wrap the dough with some cling film, cover it with a clean towel and let it rest for 1 1/2 hour.
2. After resting time, divide the pasta dough into small balls. Sprinkle some flour or corn flour on your super clean surface and roll each one of them with a long rolling pin into large round sheets. The pasta sheet should thin enough to work with it. Let the large pasta sheet to dry a bit in order to cut them. This process takes 1/2 hour approximately depending of the air humidity and temperature.
3. Then, fold them and cut in one of them into small 1 cm long squares. As Xanthi suggests, in some parts of Greece they don’t cut them into squares but they cut them as lasagne.  Usually at this point , the pasta should rest and dry for 2-4 days depending on the weather. Then store the hylopites into glass air tight containers or tissue bags and place them into a dry place.

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