Homemade flavored pasta

/5

PRESENTATION

Pasta is an institution in Italy, with a wide variety of options to choose from, including short or long pasta, baked pasta or pasta saladpasta soup or pasta fritters. The most important ingredient in Italian pasta dishes is creativity. One great example is homemade flavored pasta, made using only natural ingredients to dye the homemade egg pasta without any artificial colorings. Our homemade flavored pasta uses beetroot for purple, spinach for green, saffron for intense yellow, and tomato paste for orange. You can also use other foods to prepare sheets of homemade flavored pasta, which can be cut into your preferred shape or used to prepare colorful lasagna. Experience the taste of authentic Italian cuisine with our delicious homemade flavored pasta!

Try also our Colorful gnocchi!

INGREDIENTS

For the yellow pasta
Type 00 flour 1 ¾ cup (200 g) - (or all-purpose flour)
Eggs 2
Saffron threads ½ tsp
Semolina 1 tsp - flour, for sprinkling
For the orange pasta
Type 00 flour 1 ¾ cup (200 g) - (or all-purpose flour)
Eggs 2
Triple concentrated tomato paste ½ tbsp
Semolina 1 tsp - flour, for sprinkling
For the purple pasta
Type 00 flour 1 ½ cup (170 g) - (or all-purpose flour)
Eggs 1
Precooked beets 1.7 oz (50 g)
Semolina 1 tsp - flour, for sprinkling
For the green pasta
Type 00 flour 1 ½ cup (170 g) - (or all-purpose flour)
Eggs 1
Spinach 1 oz (30 g)
Semolina 1 tsp - flour, for sprinkling

Prepare the dough

To prepare the saffron yellow pasta, start by putting the flour in a bowl; make a crater in the center of the flour and put the shelled eggs in it; add the saffron to the eggs. With a fork, beat the eggs and slowly begin to incorporate the flour.

As soon as the eggs have absorbed enough flour to no longer be liquid, start working the dough with your hands, first in the bowl, then, when you have incorporated all the flour, transfer it onto a wooden pastry board.

Knead the yellow pasta dough for at least 10 minutes, pressing it with the palm of your hand and folding it several times, until it becomes smooth. Then wrap it in a sheet of plastic wrap and let it rest for half an hour at room temperature.

To prepare the orange pasta, pour the flour into a bowl, form a crater in the center and shell the eggs inside. Add the tomato paste to the eggs. With a fork, beat the eggs and gradually incorporate the flour.

When the eggs are no longer liquid because they have absorbed enough flour, start working the mixture with your hands, first inside the bowl and then on the wooden pastry board.

Continue to knead the orange pasta dough for 10 minutes, kneading it vigorously using the palms of your hands, until you obtain a smooth and homogeneous dough. Wrap it in plastic film and let it rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.

To prepare the green pasta, first cook the spinach: after washing them, put them in a pot with two tablespoons of water. Add a pinch of salt and cover with a lid. Cook them over medium heat until they are soft, then drain and let them cool. Squeeze them well with your hands, so that they lose as much of their cooking water as possible. Then put them in a blender and shred them finely.

Pour the flour into a bowl forming a crater in the center, in which you will put both the shelled egg and the blended spinach. Beat the egg with a fork to mix the flour and spinach, until you get a mixture that is no longer liquid.

Now knead the dough with your hands, first in the bowl and then, when you have incorporated all the flour, on a wooden pastry board. If you notice that it tends to stick to the pastry board, add a little flour. Continue to knead the dough with your hands for about ten minutes, until the mixture is smooth and homogeneous. Wrap it in a sheet of plastic wrap and let it rest at room temperature for half an hour.

To prepare the purple pasta, drain the beetroot from its cooking water, cut it into small pieces and blend it with an immersion blender to obtain a smooth and homogeneous puree.

Pour the flour into a bowl, make a crater in the center and put both the shelled egg and the beetroot puree in it. With a fork, beat the egg and begin to incorporate both the pureed beetroot and the flour.

When the mixture is no longer liquid, start kneading it with your hands inside the bowl. As soon as you have incorporated all the flour, transfer the dough onto a wooden pastry board and work it with your hands for about 10 minutes, press it and folding it several times. If the dough is too sticky you can add a little flour. When you have obtained a smooth and homogeneous mixture, wrap it in a sheet of plastic wrap and let it rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Roll out anche cut the dough

After the resting time you can roll out and cut each dough to shape your colored pasta. With each dough you will get pasta for two servings. Take the yellow dough, cut it in half and wrap one of the two parts in plastic wrap so that it doesn't dry too much while you roll out the first half.

Flour the first half of the dough and flatten it with your hands or with a rolling pin. Then pass the dough through the roller of the pasta maker set to the maximum thickness. Fold it in half to give it a more regular shape, flour it lightly and pass it again between the rollers at maximum thickness. If necessary, repeat the operation once more, until you have obtained a regular-shaped sheet.

Then cut it in half, to have two shorter and more easily workable sheets. Flour them lightly and pass them one at a time between the rollers of the pasta maker, setting the thickness slightly thinner. Continue in this way, reducing the thickness each time, until you reach, if you can, the second to last thickness value. Proceed in the same way to roll out the other half of the yellow dough and the orange, green and purple dough.

Once the sheets have been rolled out, you can boil them to prepare lasagna, or cut them to shape tagliatelle, fettuccine or pappardelle: in this case, sprinkle the sheets of homemade flavored pasta with a little semolina flour which helps them dry and not stick together. Take each sheet from the short side and roll it up on itself, forming a flat roll. Then cut it with a knife into slices 1/4 inch (about 7 mm) thick for tagliatelle, 0.15 inch (about 4 mm) for fettuccine and half an inch (about 13 mm) for pappardelle. Unroll the pasta thus obtained and wrap it around your fingers to form noodles; then place them on a lightly floured work surface.

To cook the homemade flavored pasta, bring plenty of salted water to a boil in a large pot. Add the pasta and cook for 4-8 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Cooking times vary according to the thickness of the pasta. Once cooked, drain and season to taste.

 

How to store

You can keep the homemade flavored pasta for a few hours at room temperature, placed on a floured pastry board. To preserve it for longer, it is better to freeze it: in the case of lasagna sheets, you can put the sheets on top of each other, separated by a sheet of baking paper, inside a plastic bag; for tagliatelle, fettuccine and pappardelle, arrange the noodles well spaced on a tray and place them in the freezer for a few hours. When they are frozen you can put them in a plastic bag and keep them in the freezer for 2-3 months. You can then boil them still frozen.

Advice

To prepare homemade black pasta you can use cuttlefish ink. For a brown pasta, use 2 eggs, 6.3 oz (180 g) of flour 00 and 1 tbsp of unsweetened cocoa powder. For the purple one, as an alternative to beetroot, you can use 1.5 oz (40 g) of boiled and pureed purple cabbage. For the yellow pasta, as an alternative to saffron, you can use half a teaspoon of turmeric powder. 

To better savor the various flavors of colored pasta, you can simply season them with melted butter, adding a few sage leaves, a pinch of grated nutmeg and a little grated Parmesan. The green pasta with spinach is also good seasoned with the classic ragù alla Bolognese, the saffron one is excellent combined with fish and seafood, while the beetroot one goes perfectly with vegetables and cheeses.

For the translation of some texts, artificial intelligence tools may have been used.