Homemade pasta is surprisingly easy to make, especially if you have a food processor. If you’re not crazy about spinach, just leave it out of this recipe.
3 oz. fresh spinach
2 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
2 cups all-purpose flour, as needed
Get a bowl and put some cold water and ice cubes in it. Set it aside.
Preheat a pan over medium heat with a little water in it. Add the spinach and cook it for no more than a minute…just until it has wilted completely and turns bright green.
Place all the spinach in the ice bath to let it cool for a few seconds. When it gets lukewarm, remove it, and squeeze out the excess moisture with a clean dish towel or cheesecloth.
In the food processor, using the regular cutting blade (not the dough blade), combine the spinach, eggs, olive oil and salt. Blend until it’s smooth.
Add the flour and blend until the dough no longer sticks to the blades. Depending on how much moisture you have, you might have to add flour…or you might need to add some cold water.
On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into a ball, and wrap it with plastic wrap. Let it rest for 20 minutes at room temperature.
After 20 minutes, remove the dough from the plastic and, on a floured surface, cut the dough into 4 pieces.
Roll the dough out with a rolling pin into rectangles about 1/4″ in thickness if you have a pasta machine. If you’re going to be cutting it by hand, roll it as thin as you can.
If using a pasta maker, dust it with flour and run the dough rectangles through several times, starting with the widest setting, and then reducing it with each run to the desired thickness. Spinach pasta is stickier than regular pasta, so you may not get it as thin. Then change the pasta maker’s attachment to the desired noodle shape, and cut it with the pasta maker.
If you’re hand-cutting the pasta, once you’ve rolled it as thin as you like, dust it with flour and roll it into a log shape. Then cut it into pieces as wide as you like. Unroll each cut piece and place it on a floured surface so it doesn’t stick together.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Lower the pasta into the water, using a wooden spoon to keep the noodles moving so they don’t stick together. Cook until the pasta is firm but soft, 3 to 6 minutes depending on the thickness of the noodle.
Use tongs to remove the pasta from the pot. If you pour it into a strainer, the pasta will stick together.
If you want to make pasta without the spinach, start with 1 3/4 cups flour and then add as needed.
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