Spinach Pasta Recipe
Spinach Pasta
200 g spinach or about 1/2 contents of a freezer bag stuffed with spinach, thoroughly rinsed
1 large egg
175 g or about 1 1/2 c all-purpose flour
]1. Fill a medium bowl 3/4 full with water and a couple handfuls of ice. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add the spinach and cook for two minutes. Drain into a fine mesh strainer and place the strainer in the ice bath until the spinach has cooled.
2. Finely chop the spinach...chop it longer than you think you need to. Whisk the chopped spinach (should come to about 1 cup) with the egg.
3. Pour the flour onto your work surface and make a well in the middle for your wet ingredients. Pour the spinach/egg mixture into the well and use a fork to start working the flour into it. You may need to recreate the flour "walls" as you go along to prevent the wet mixture from leaking out. Soon, you will have to abandon the fork and use your hands to bring the dough together.
4. Knead the dough for 5-10 minutes, adding flour as necessary to prevent it from sticking to the work surface. After kneading, the dough should be smooth and very slightly sticky. Wrap in plastic wrap and allow to sit for at least 30 minutes.
5. Once rested, cut the pasta dough in half. You will only be using half of the dough but can roll out, cut, and freeze (which I've never tried) or dry (which is what I did) the rest. For the half you will be using, cut this dough in half again - these will be the top and bottom of the ravioli. I used a KitchenAid pasta roller attachment to roll out the two pieces of dough, working my way up to the thinnest setting. Place both sheets of pasta parallel to one another on a lightly floured work surface another couple minutes. Plate the ravioli (two for me, three for him), pour over the sauce, and sprinkle with the cheese.