Creator: me!
It’s been raining here for two days and when it rains, all I want to do is cozy up with a warm bowl of pasta. During the early days of the pandemic, I figured out how to make homemade pasta (I’ll add that recipe later!) but I was very curious if I could make it a little healthier by adding spinach to the dough. Well, turns out that’s possible and not entirely hard!
I’ve included some pictures along the way in an attempt to help illustrate the different steps of the recipe.
Ingredients:
4 large eggs
1 bag of baby spinach
2.5 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
salt
Instructions:
Step 1: In a small pot, bring salted water to boil. Add spinach for just a few minutes until bright green and wilted. Drain in a colander and squeeze as much water out of the spinach as you can. The photos below show the spinach in the pot, right when it is drained, and then after I’ve squeezed as much water out as possible.
Step 2: In a food processor or blender, add 4 large eggs, baby spinach, salt, and olive oil. You should have a very blended egg and spinach mixture.
Step 3: In a large mixing bowl, add 2.25 cups of flour and make a well in the center. Pour the spinach mixture into the center of the well.
Step 4: Using a fork, stir the spinach mixture, slowly incorporating the flour until you’ve formed a dough. The dough should be solid, but slightly moist. If it is dry, add more of the egg mixture if you have it or another egg. If it is too sticky, add more flour. In my experience, the dough is sort of crumbly until I move to the next step.
Step 5: Once the dough is formed, use your hands to form it into a ball. Remove it from the bowl onto a lightly floured surface and knead it for about ten minutes. The dough should look like the photo below.
Step 6: Cover the dough with a tea towel or plastic wrap and let sit for about 30 minutes.
Step 7: Section the dough into four equal parts. Using a pasta roller, roll the dough to the thinnest layer possible (that’s #9 on mine), starting with thicker layers and folding over to continue to form the noodle. Continue to lightly dust with flour as needed so the pasta doesn’t stick to the roller. Then, use the pasta cutter to form long strands of fettuccine and set them on a pasta drying rack for about 20 minutes to dry.
Step 8: Add to a pot of boiling, generously salted, water and cook for about 3 minutes.
Step 9: Enjoy! (This is tossed with sautéd broccoli, a garlic/EVOO/butter sauce, and parmesan cheese)
