Spinach Pasta From Scratch Recipes

FRESH SPINACH PASTA

Steps:

• Heat a few drops of olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add spinach and cook, stirring constantly with tongs, until leaves start to wilt and turn dark green, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer to a strainer set over a bowl; let cool slightly, about 5 minutes. Wrap spinach up in a clean, dry towel and squeeze out as much liquid as possible.
• Transfer spinach into a blender. Add eggs; pulse on and off until pureed. Press puree through a strainer into a bowl if desired.
• Pile flour onto your work surface. Make a large well in the center; add salt, 2 teaspoons oil, and the liquid spinach mixture. Stir some flour into the well until liquid is mostly absorbed. Gather in enough flour to form a shaggy dough. Scrape excess flour to the side. Knead dough for a few minutes until smooth and soft but still moldable. Add extra flour or water if needed.
• Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
• Cut dough into 4 pieces; keep 3 pieces wrapped in plastic. Roll 1 piece into a tube and press down into a rectangle about 1/4-inch thick, dusting with semolina flour.
• Run dough twice through a stand mixer fitted with a pasta attachment using the thickest setting. Dust with semolina; fold in the rounded ends to retain the rectangular shape. Run pasta sheet through the thickest setting 2 more times. Decrease thickness by 1 setting and run pasta sheet through 2 times. Repeat 2 more times. Dust with semolina if sticky and clean up any edges as needed.
• Cut pasta sheets in half lengthwise and sprinkle with semolina. Let dry for 15 minutes. Roll and dry remaining pieces of dough. Run each sheet through the fettuccine setting and dust with more semolina.
• Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Cook fresh pasta until tender yet firm to the bite, 45 to 60 seconds. Drain most of the water and mix pasta with any piping-hot sauce you desire.

UNIQUE SPINACH NOODLES

Steps:

• Combine spinach and water in a saucepan. Cover, and cook till spinach is very tender. Cool slightly.
• Place spinach and liquid in blender container. Add egg and salt. Cover, and blend till smooth. Transfer to a bowl. Add enough flour to make a stiff dough.
• Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead for 1 minute. Roll very thin on a floured surface. Let rest 20 minutes. Roll up loosely. Slice 1/4 inch wide. Unroll. Cut into desired lengths. Spread out on a rack to dry for 2 hours.

SPINACH PASTA FROM SCRATCH

Steps:

• Start boiling a large pot of water.
• NOTES: a) If using frozen spinach, skip steps 3-5; b) if omitting the spinach, use 1 1/4 cups of flour.
• Heat a skillet to medium heat, and add spinach; don't use cooking spray or oil.
• Cook spinach for about 30 seconds, stirring continuously. Spinach should turn a bright green color.
• Plunge spinach immediately into an ice water bath to stop the cooking process.
• When spinach has cooled down to lukewarm temperature, squeeze out the excess moisture using a cheesecloth.
• Add spinach, olive oil, eggs, and salt to food processor and run until fully blended.
• Add flour to food processor and run until blended. If the mixture is still sticky, add flour.
• Remove dough from food processor. Roll dough into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap. Allow to rest at room temperature for 20 minutes.
• Transfer dough to a work surface that's generously dusted with flour. Cut dough into 4 pieces.
• If using a pasta maker, roll each piece out with a rolling pin until it's about 1/4" thick. If not using a pasta maker, roll until thin and hand-cut as desired.
• Shape dough into rectangles and run through pasta maker, starting with the widest setting. If the dough sticks in the rollers, dust the dough and the rollers with flour.
• Continue rolling dough through the rollers, gradually reducing the setting to flatten it as desired. NOTE: spinach pasta may need to be 1 setting wider than you normally want because of the stickiness of the dough.
• Cut pasta into shapes using the appropriate attachment.
• Lower pasta into water (don't drop it) and boil for a few minutes. Don't crowd the pot with pasta, as this can cause pasta to stick together.
• NOTE: Don't dump the whole pot of cooked pasta into a strainer the way you might with dry, boxed pasta. If transferring to a strainer, don't rinse with water.
• Using tongs or a spider skimmer, remove pasta from the water and transfer to a different container. Doing it this way will help the pasta keep its shape, and allow you to use hot water for the remainder of the boil.

FRESH SPINACH PASTA DOUGH

Steps:

• Add 2 inches of water to a medium saucepan, and fit with a steamer insert. Bring to a simmer. Add 6 ounces spinach, cover, and steam until bright green and softened, about 2 minutes. Let cool slightly. Squeeze out liquid using a clean kitchen towel or paper towels. Puree spinach in a food processor (you should have about 1/2 cup puree).
• Add eggs and yolk to puree in food processor, and process until combined. Add flour and 1 heaping teaspoon salt, and process until dough just comes together, about 20 seconds.
• Transfer dough to a well-floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic, 5 to 10 minutes, adding up to 2 tablespoons flour if dough is too sticky. Place on a piece of parchment, and cover with an inverted bowl, or wrap tightly in plastic; let rest for 1 to 2 hours.
• Cut dough into 8 pieces. Working with 1 piece at a time (keep the remaining pieces covered with the inverted bowl), flatten dough into an oblong shape slightly thinner than the pasta machine's widest setting (number 1). Dust dough very lightly with flour, and feed through machine. Fold lengthwise into thirds and rotate 90 degrees. Repeat twice on same setting to smooth dough and increase its elasticity.
• Turn the dial to next narrower setting. Pass dough through twice, gently supporting it with your palm. Continue to press dough, passing it through ever-finer settings, two passes on each setting, until sheet is almost translucent and very thin but still intact (number 5 of 8 on a KitchenAid pasta roller). The dough will stretch to about 16 inches long. If dough bubbles or tears, pass it through again, and dust with flour if the dough is sticking.
• For farfalle, lasagna squares, or ravioli: Place rolled sheet on a lightly floured surface, and cut out as directed in corresponding recipe, using a dry brush to dust flour off if needed. For ribbon pastas: Place dough on a drying rack until slightly tacky, 10 to 15 minutes, and then use a pasta machine or cutting attachment to cut into strands. Drape over rack until strands are semidry and won't stick together, about 20 minutes. Cook immediately, or lay flat on a baking sheet dusted with semolina, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight.

HOMEMADE SPINACH PASTA DOUGH

Steps:

• Gather the ingredients.
• Squeeze as much water as possible from the chopped spinach with your hands or by pressing with a wooden spoon in a colander.
• In a blender or food processor , combine the spinach and eggs.
• Puree until the mixture is dark green and smooth, with few or no visible chunks of spinach showing.
• In a bowl, combine the flour and salt, stirring with a fork or a whisk to combine.
• On a large, lightly floured work surface (like a countertop covered with a silicone pastry mat), pour the flour mixture into a mound and make a well in the center.
• Pour the spinach-egg mixture into the well.
• Using a fork, stir the spinach mixture in a circular motion, gradually incorporating more and more flour.
• As the mixture turns chunky, begin to knead it, incorporating enough flour to make a stiff dough. Knead the dough for about 5 minutes, adding more flour until the dough is smooth and slightly tacky but not sticky.
• Set aside, covered with plastic wrap, for about 20 minutes.
• Assemble your pasta maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.
• Divide the dough into 4 to 6 equal sections with a knife or a dough cutter.
• Cover all of the pieces-except the one you're working with-with a clean dishtowel or plastic wrap.
• Form the piece of dough into a flat rectangle with your hands or a rolling pin to prepare it to be fed into the pasta maker.
• Beginning with one of the shorter sides of the rectangle, feed the pasta through the pasta maker on the first (widest) setting.
• Then fold it in thirds (like a business letter).
• Feed it through the pasta rollers again.
• Repeat the folding and rolling steps several times on the widest setting, before rolling pasta at increasingly smaller settings until it reaches the desired thinness.
• Use the sheets of pasta as-is for lasagna, form into ravioli, or cut into noodles using a pasta machine attachment.

SPINACH NOODLES

Steps:

• In a blender or food processor, combine spinach, eggs and salt; process until smooth. Pour into a bowl. Gradually add enough flour to make a firm, but not sticky, dough. , On a floured surface, knead about 20 times. Wrap in plastic and let rest 30 minutes. Divide dough in half. On a floured surface, roll each half to 1/16-in. thickness. Roll up jelly-roll style and cut into 1/4-in. slices. Separate the slices and let rest on a clean towel for at least 1 hour. Cook noodles in boiling salted water until tender, about 15-20 minutes; drain.

HOMEMADE SPINACH PASTA

Steps:

• Combine water and ice in a bowl. Preheat a skillet over medium heat; add spinach. Cook, stirring continuously, until spinach turns bright green, about 30 seconds. Plunge into ice water bath; remove when spinach is lukewarm. Squeeze out excess moisture with cheese cloth.
• Combine spinach, eggs, olive oil, and salt in a food processor; blend until smooth. Add flour; blend until dough no longer sticks to the blades, adding flour as needed.
• Roll dough into a ball; wrap in plastic wrap. Rest at room temperature for 20 minutes.
• Remove plastic wrap from dough. Transfer to a work surface generously dusted with flour; cut dough into 4 pieces with a sharp knife. Roll out dough with a rolling pin to 1/4-inch thickness; shape into rectangles.
• Dust pasta maker rollers with flour. Run the dough rectangles through a pasta maker on the widest setting. Repeat rolling dough through rollers, gradually reducing the setting to desired thickness. Change pasta maker's attachment to preferred noodle shape; cut pasta with pasta maker.
• Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Lower pasta gently into water; use a spoon to keep noodles from sticking together. Cook until pasta is firm but soft, 3 to 6 minutes. Remove from the water with tongs; transfer to a bowl.

SPINACH PASTA DOUGH

Steps:

• Make sure you are using washed and ready to eat baby spinach. If you are using mature spinach leaves you'll need to cut off any large stalks.
• Put the flour in a food processor then add the spinach Blitz the flour and spinach for a few minutes, you'll notice it turns powdery then starts to come together more. It'll take a couple of minutes.
• Stop the food processor and feel the dough, if it feels soft and sticks together it's ready but if it's too dry add a little more spinach and blitz again.
• Tip the dough onto a clean work surface and bring together. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes it may feel quite stiff at first but it will turn smooth and elastic the more you knead it.
• Cover it in plastic wrap and let it rest for 30 minutes. This is a really important step and allows the gluten to relax making your dough more pliable and easier to work with.
• Once ready, cut the dough in half and squash it to fit into the widest setting of your pasta machine. Make sure to dust in semola or flour so it doesn't stick.
• Pass it through the widest setting once then fold one edge to the middle and the second edge over that so it overlaps. Pass it through the widest setting then repeat the process 4 times.
• You can now pass it through 1 higher setting at a time and create whatever pasta shape you'd like. For tagliatelle I tend to stop at number 5 on my Marcato Atlas machine but do what you prefer.