Green Pasta
Submitted by momof4
Homemade green pasta dough made with spinach, eggs, and olive oil. A classic Italian spinach pasta from scratch that rolls thin and cooks tender with a vibrant green color.
YIELD
1 BatchPREP
30 minCOOK
0 minREADY
1 hrsHomemade spinach pasta is one of those projects that looks impressive but is really just four ingredients and some arm work. Frozen spinach squeezed dry gets kneaded directly into an egg pasta dough, giving you sheets of vibrant green pasta that taste as good as they look.
Squeezing the spinach bone-dry before adding it is the most important step in this recipe. Any water left in the spinach turns the dough slack and sticky, and you’ll end up adding too much flour to compensate, which makes the finished pasta tough instead of tender. Wring it out in a clean kitchen towel until absolutely nothing drips.
The dough comes together using the traditional well method on a wooden board. Flour mound, well in the center, eggs and spinach in the middle, fork to gradually incorporate. It looks messy at first, but once half the flour is worked in, it starts behaving. Six minutes of kneading total gives you a smooth, elastic dough.
The 30-minute rest is not optional. It relaxes the gluten so the dough rolls out thin without springing back at you.
Kitchen Tips
- Use frozen chopped spinach, not fresh. Fresh spinach has too much water and needs to be blanched, cooled, and squeezed, adding extra steps. Frozen is already cooked down.
- Knead with the heels of your palms, not your fingers. The broad pressure develops gluten more efficiently and gets you to elastic dough faster.
- Dust with flour sparingly during kneading. Too much surface flour gets incorporated and dries out the dough.
- After resting, roll the dough as thin as your pasta machine or rolling pin will allow. Green pasta shines when it’s delicate and silky, not thick and chewy.
Variations
- Herb pasta: Add finely chopped fresh basil or parsley along with the spinach for a more complex herbal flavor.
- Beet pasta: Replace the spinach with cooked, pureed beet for a stunning deep red dough with an earthy sweetness.
Ingredients
Directions
Make a mound of the flour in the center of a large wooden cutting board.
Make a well in the middle of the flour and add the eggs, oil and spinach.
Using a fork, beat together the eggs, oil and spinach and begin to incorporate the flour starting with the inner rim of the well.
As you expand the well, keep pushing the flour up to retain the well shape.
Do not worry that this initial phase looks messy.
The dough will come together when ½ of the flour is incorporated.
Start kneading the dough with both hands, using the palms of your hands primarily.
Once you have a cohesive mass, remove the dough from the board and scrape up any left over crusty bits.
Lightly flour the board and continue kneading for 3 more minutes.
The dough should be elastic and a little sticky.
Continue to knead for another 3 minutes, remembering to dust your board when necessary.
Wrap the dough in plastic and allow to rest for 30 minutes at room temperature.
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