Homemade Spinach Pasta could be one of the closest things to a salad you can get me to eat. Just kidding, I love salad, particularly spinach salad, but I also love pasta, so this is the best of the two worlds collided.
Don’t think you’ll turn into Popeye with this pasta, it has a very mild spinach taste but the color is vibrant and so pretty. If I have some spinach in my fridge that’s looking a little sad, this is how I use it up.
I always say making pasta from scratch is the cheapest form of therapy. A manual pasta machine is a pretty cheap way to upgrade your chef skills. Once you get the hang of it, making pasta is a simple, easy, and can be a quick process.
Toss freshly cooked spinach pasta with pesto, fresh cut tomatoes and cheese of your choice. I love tossing this pasta with something so simple as feta and a little olive oil with basil. Sometimes the simplest ingredients make for the best dishes.
Homemade Spinach Pasta
The key to making fresh pasta is the resting time, it's important to let your dough rest for 15 minutes minimum before rolling out and cutting or else your dough will be working against you.
Ingredients
- 1 cup Spinach, packed
- 1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
- 1/4 cup Water
- 1 tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- 2 cups All Purpose Flour, plus more for dusting
- 2 whole Eggs
- 1 Egg Yolk
- Kosher Salt, for seasoning
Directions
- Step 1 In a food processor add spinach, salt, water and olive oil. Blend until smooth. Set aside.
- Step 2 On a clean and flat surface of your counter top, pile the flour and create a well in the middle of the flour. Add egg and egg yolk into the center of the flour. Pour the spinach puree in the middle. Very gently start whisking the eggs and puree into the flour with a fork and bring the edges of the flour over the top of the eggs.
- Step 3 Once the mixture starts to come together start folding the dough over onto itself. If the mixture is too tacky at this point sprinkle additional flour over the top and incorporate. Knead the dough for a few minutes. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and rest for 15 minutes.
- Step 4 Cut your pasta dough into 4 even pieces. Working with one quarter of the dough, wrap the rest with plastic wrap. Sprinkle your pasta machine and pasta dough with a dusting of flour.
- Step 5 Flatten dough with your palm and roll out pasta starting at the widest setting on your pasta machine, mine is 0. Rolling the dough is a process, you need to make several passes, throughout each thickness setting for the best results. I start with the biggest setting, run it through once or twice there, then gradually adjust the settings to be thinner and thinner until I have the perfect sheet. Work your way up on the settings slowly, careful not to tear the dough. Between each pass, I fold the strip into thirds. This helps square up the edges and keeps things even. Work your way up to a thinner setting, I like mine at a 5 or 6 for fettuccine. Your preference on how thin or thick you want your dough.
- Step 6 Cut your dough through the fettuccine setting and place pasta on a floured sheet pan. Gently toss the pasta in the flour. Set aside.
- Step 7 Cook pasta in salted boiling water for 2 minutes. Drain well and drizzle with olive oil, season with kosher salt. Prepare to your preferance and enjoy!
Savor and Enjoy!
Can you dry this pasta to use at a later date?
Because it’s a fresh spinach puree without any shelf stabilizing ingredients I’d advise against drying it for later use. However, you can freeze the dough, just allow to thaw in the fridge overnight when you’re ready to use. Enjoy!