Making Green Pasta Dough Recipes

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.

GREEN PASTA DOUGH

Steps:

• Bring 3 quarts of water to a boil. Place a bowl filled with water and ice next to the stove top. Plunge the spinach into the boiling water and blanch for 1 minute. Remove from the boiling water with a slotted spoon and immerse in the ice water. When cooled, remove from the water, squeeze in a towel to dry and place in the bowl of a food processor. Puree until a very fine paste forms.
• Mound 3 1/2 cups of the flour in the center of a large wooden cutting board. Make a well in the middle of the flour and add the egg and spinach and the olive oil. Using a fork, beat together the eggs and oil and begin to incorporate the flour, starting with the inner rim of the well.
• As you expand the well, keep pushing the flour up from the base of the mound to retain the well shape. The dough will come together when half of the flour is incorporated.
• Start kneading the dough with both hands, using the palms of your hands. Once you have a cohesive mass, remove the dough from the board and scrape up and discard any leftover bits. Lightly re-flour the board and continue kneading for six more minutes. The dough should be elastic and a little sticky. Wrap the dough in plastic and allow to rest for 30 minutes at room temperature. Roll out to the thinnest setting on a pasta rolling machine. Cut the pasta into 1/4-inch wide ribbons, place on a sheet tray that has been liberally sprinkled with semolina flour, cover with clean towels and set aside.