Spinach Pasta

To check another item off of my most wanted kitchen doodads, I finally got around to getting a pasta machine! I figured after overcoming the laminated dough hurdle, I can do anything!!!

And do anything I did! To soften the blow of having pasta, I decided to take the spinach route and I looked to my old friend Emeril for the game plan:

You Will Need:

5 ounces fresh spinach, blanched and squeezed dry

1 pound all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 large egg

6 large egg yolks

1 Tablespoon olive oil

Directions:

In the bowl of a food processor, combine the flour, salt and blanched spinach. Process to mix well. With the machine running, add the eggs, egg yolks, and olive oil through the feed tube, and process until it resembles wet cornmeal, about 2 minutes.

Take a handful of dough at a time and form into a firm ball. Repeat with the remaining dough. Set dough aside for 30 minutes underneath some plastic wrap.* 

Roll each dough ball through the pasta machine according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and cook the pasta until just al dente, about 2 minutes. Drain in a colander and serve with desired sauce.

*Emeril doesn't have you rest the dough, but I find that it helps. Do what you want. 

The pasta comes out a gorgeous bright green color and I just dusted a kitchen towel with some flour and formed little nests of the pasta to be cooked up right away or bagged in portions for the freezer or fridge. 

And I know Emeril suggests serving it with sauce, but honestly you want to let all of that hard work shine! I served mine this weekend with a drizzle of olive oil, salt, pepper, and an amazing parmesan I picked up at Eataly. 

We had our first burger-less ya-ya dinner (BOO on you New York City for stealing our girl!) and kept it rather simple and conservative... 

Until dessert:

When we waged war upon a peach crumb pie. :) A recipe that is so delicious that it must be shared, but so tedious that now is not the time. But soon, my loves. This is definitely one not to be missed!

Look at that junk. But perhaps twelve peaches and two sticks of butter taste good together no matter how you put them together...?

But touching back on the green stuff - after this whole experience I have learned that fresh pasta is DEFINITELY worth the time and effort! And it doesn't even take that much time - I tackled the project as soon as I got home around 5:30 and had dinner by 7. So it's possible to have a job AND fresh pasta in your life! And as far as effort goes - there are definitely recipes way simpler than the spinach one on the interweb, but spinach sounded good to me. 

I'll definitely be making more pasta soon - in the form of pumpkin/butternut squash noodles and maybe even some ravioli!

PASTA 4 LYFE!