Fresh spinach pasta

bowl of fresh spinach pasta with some spinach leaves below bowl

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5 from 5 votes

Fresh pasta is something special and this spinach version has an added nutritional punch. Comforting and tasty.

Prep Time45

Cook Time10

Total Time55

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Italian

Servings: (or 4)

Calories: 422kcal

Author: Caroline's Cooking

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Ingredients

8 oz baby spinach weight without any stems (you can also use larger-leaf spinach, see below)
2 large eggs
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 ¾ cups all purpose flour plain flour, or use roughly ⅓ semolina flour

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

If using baby spinach, place spinach in a large bowl and pour over boiling water until all is submerged, pushing leaves down as needed. Leave for a minute then drain and allow to drain as it cools. If using larger leaf spinach, put the spinach in a pan of boiling water and boil for about 2-4 minutes, until wilted and soft then drain.
Once the spinach is cool, squeeze well, roughly chop, then squeeze again to get as much moisture out as possible. Put the spinach in a food processor with the eggs, egg yolk and salt and pulse until well chopped and mixed, scraping down as needed. (see notes below)
Add the flour about ½ cup at a time and pulse three or four times after each addition. Add the olive oil part way through. Once all added, pulse until the dough comes together, away from the sides into a ball.
Remove the dough to a floured surface and knead with floured hands for about 5 minutes. It should be soft but not sticky - if it is, add a little more all-purpose/plain flour as you knead.
Wrap in plastic/cling film and allow to rest at room temperature for around 30min. At this stage, you can keep the dough in the fridge for a day or two until ready to use. Then, let it rest at room temperature around 30 minutes before rolling.
When ready, divide the dough into 4-6 sections and cover the pieces you aren't working with with a damp cloth to save them drying out. Prepare some trays by dusting them with flour or semolina flour.
As you work with each piece, flatten it out slightly, dust with flour then put it through your pasta roller on the widest settings a few times (3-5 about right) until smooth, dusting with flour in between if at all sticky. Then move up the settings rolling ideally twice at each setting (once from either end) until you get to the thickness you would like. On my machine, I typically roll to about '4' or maybe '5'.
Then, either use the cutter attachment or hand cut if you want to make into linguine/fettuccine and place the ribbons onto the prepared trays in little stacks or laid flat. Cover with a cloth if not using soon.
Once all is done and ready to cook, place handfuls at a time in boiling water, helping the pieces to separate as you add them, for around 2-3 minutes until they come to the surface and are cooked.
Serve with your preferred sauce.

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Notes

While it can be easiest to use a food processor since you can then pulse as you add the flours, you may want to use a blender initially if your food processor is not that good at breaking up the spinach. It's OK to have little chunks of spinach, but the pasta will be smoother if you can get it really fine (and it'll be a more even green and easier to cut into linguine etc). If you use a blender, you can then either transfer back to food processor or, to have less to clean up, mix by hand. Place the flour on your work surface in a pile, make a well in the middle and then pour the egg-spinach mixture into it. Use a fork or your hands to gradually incorporate the flour into the egg mixture.

Nutrition