Making Spinach Pasta - Fettuccine
This batch of pasta (enough for 2-3 people) was very easy to throw together without any fancy 00 Italian flour, or the semolina which I've used in the past, just all purpose flour. What made it special though, was adding spinach to the pasta dough.
The pasta making process was quite simple otherwise ... a quick whiz in the food processor to form, a bit of hands on time for kneading and then let your pasta dough rest on the counter. If you want to roll the pasta out with your handy rolling pin, you may, but if you have a pasta machine, roll it out and cut it to the width you prefer in the machine.
Spinach Pasta - makes 10 oz of pasta
1 whole egg and 1 egg yolk
1/3 cup frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry in a potato ricer
1/2 tsp coarse sea salt
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour (plus up to 2 tbsp if needed)
In a food processor, pulse together the whole egg, yolk and drained spinach for about a minute.
Add the salt and flour and pulse together for another 20 seconds, or until a ball forms.
In the food processor just before hand kneading
On lightly floured working surface, knead the dough for about 10 minutes until you get a nice supple ball. (You may need to add up to an additional 2 tbsp of flour, if it's warm or if you haven't squeezed out the extra moisture from the spinach. I used about a tsp more in total.)
After kneading - Smooth and supple like a 'baby's bottom', the way pizza dough feels
Wrap up the dough in cling film/food wrap (ie Saran Wrap) and let sit on the counter for 1-2 hours.
Cut the dough into quarters for easier handling and then roll out to your desired thinness (about 1/16th of an inch or thinner), by hand or using a pasta machine. Refer to my "Playing with Pasta" post if you need a refresher. I went to a setting of 6 on my machine. Roll each sheet in turn before moving the knob to a higher setting, so you don't have to turn the knob that many times. By the way, you'll need a lot of working space for the finished sheets.
Rolling out the sheets - My kitchen table is tricky to clamp the pasta machine to so I used a wooden cutting board.
Let the sheets of pasta dry for about half an hour on clean towels before putting through your pasta cutters. I went for a fettuccine width on my pasta machine ... but you can roll up the sheet and then cut it to the width you prefer with a sharp knife if you want to be more 'rustic'.
Fettuccine drying for 30 minutes or so while the water came to a boil and I prepped my sauce ingredients.
The pasta making process was quite simple otherwise ... a quick whiz in the food processor to form, a bit of hands on time for kneading and then let your pasta dough rest on the counter. If you want to roll the pasta out with your handy rolling pin, you may, but if you have a pasta machine, roll it out and cut it to the width you prefer in the machine.
Spinach Pasta - makes 10 oz of pasta
1 whole egg and 1 egg yolk
1/3 cup frozen spinach, thawed and squeezed dry in a potato ricer
1/2 tsp coarse sea salt
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour (plus up to 2 tbsp if needed)
In a food processor, pulse together the whole egg, yolk and drained spinach for about a minute.
Add the salt and flour and pulse together for another 20 seconds, or until a ball forms.
In the food processor just before hand kneading
On lightly floured working surface, knead the dough for about 10 minutes until you get a nice supple ball. (You may need to add up to an additional 2 tbsp of flour, if it's warm or if you haven't squeezed out the extra moisture from the spinach. I used about a tsp more in total.)
After kneading - Smooth and supple like a 'baby's bottom', the way pizza dough feels
Wrap up the dough in cling film/food wrap (ie Saran Wrap) and let sit on the counter for 1-2 hours.
Cut the dough into quarters for easier handling and then roll out to your desired thinness (about 1/16th of an inch or thinner), by hand or using a pasta machine. Refer to my "Playing with Pasta" post if you need a refresher. I went to a setting of 6 on my machine. Roll each sheet in turn before moving the knob to a higher setting, so you don't have to turn the knob that many times. By the way, you'll need a lot of working space for the finished sheets.
Rolling out the sheets - My kitchen table is tricky to clamp the pasta machine to so I used a wooden cutting board.
Let the sheets of pasta dry for about half an hour on clean towels before putting through your pasta cutters. I went for a fettuccine width on my pasta machine ... but you can roll up the sheet and then cut it to the width you prefer with a sharp knife if you want to be more 'rustic'.
Fettuccine drying for 30 minutes or so while the water came to a boil and I prepped my sauce ingredients.