hello this is chef john from food wishes
comma with fresh spinach pasta that's
right while it's true making your own
pasta at home is pretty simple and easy
it's also true that buying it at the
store is like a hundred times easier
which is why when I do decide to make
homemade pasta I'm generally doing it
for some kind of specially flavored or
colored pasta like this amazing fresh
spinach version you're gonna see today
and unlike many of the spinach pastas
you see in the store ours is actually
gonna have a healthy amount of spinach
included
and speaking of spinach to get started
that's gonna be the first thing we need
to prep and buy prep I mean wilt so
we're gonna take a lot of spinach is in
a half a pound of it and I'm gonna go
ahead and add it to this pan that's been
lightly brushed with olive oil and once
that's been transferred and we'll turn
our heat to medium and by the way the
little bit of olive oil I just mentioned
is not for flavor all right we just rub
a few drops in so the spinach leaves
don't stick to the dry pan and what
we'll do is cook this over medium heat
stirring it pretty much constantly with
our tongs just until it wilts and turns
dark green which is all gonna happen
pretty quickly and then what we'll do as
soon as it does wilt and it looks a
little something like this is quickly
take that off the heat and transfer that
into a strainer where we're gonna let
that cool down before squeezing out the
water I mean you don't have to let it
cool down but it is much less painful to
squeeze if you do so we will go ahead
and let that sit till it cools down a
little
at which point we'll transfer that onto
a clean dry towel and then we'll gather
that up and squeeze out as much liquid
as we can because we do want this fairly
dry when we blend it with our eggs which
is the next step and then once that's
been accomplished we can transfer our
spinach into a blender where we're gonna
puree that with two large eggs because
I'm doing such small amounts here this
is not super easy okay if we were making
a four egg batch this would blend a lot
easier but that's okay if you keep
pulsing it on and off and scrape down
the sides a few times eventually it will
puree enough or at least this much which
is fine because the next step is we're
gonna pass this through a strainer into
a bowl which by the way is technically
optional you can make pasta with this
mixture as is but all I'm really
interested in is the eggs and the
spinach juice and by passing it through
like this that's what I'm going to end
up with and all the most fibrous parts
from the stems
such are gonna be left in this strainer
so whether you do this is gonna be up to
you
I mean you are after all the William
Devane of whether it is strain and by
the way you start making your own
homemade pasta you're gonna have a lot
more to invest in gold and that's it
once our spinach and egg mixture is done
we can go ahead and mix up some pasta
before that today we're gonna be using a
very old Atelier method that's called
the we know measure of the flour method
and what that entails is putting way
more flour than you need on your work
surface and then making a big well in
the middle into which we're gonna add
some salt and olive oil
and normally we would put our egg
mixture in first but I did want you to
see how much I was using I thought it'd
be easier this way and then after our
salt and oil what we'll do is go ahead
and pour in our spinach mixture into the
center be very very careful to make sure
we have high enough sides so that
doesn't run out because if not it's
going to overflow and run off the table
onto the floor and then no one's going
to be happy so make sure your wells big
enough and then what we're gonna do is
stir that with a fork
slowly but surely bringing in enough
flour from the outside until our mixture
is no longer dangerously runny and then
what we'll do after mixing that with a
fork for a minute or two is go ahead and
clean that off with our fingers and
we'll switch to mixing this with our
hands and what we'll do is sort of just
gather this mixture together until it
sort of pulls together into a shaggy
dough and as soon as we think we're
getting close to having incorporated in
enough flour we're gonna stop and we'll
take our bench scraper and kind of move
away any of the excess flour which by
the way if we don't use we will sift
right back into the container and we
will continue pressing our dough
together until we can start kneading and
then we'll simply continue kneading
until we're happy with the texture and
if it feels too wet just add a little
more of that flour from the side and if
it feels too dry of course you can
sprinkle in a few drops of water but
don't do that too quickly sometimes it
will feel a little bit dry when you
start to knead it but as you continue to
work in a few minutes you'll see it'll
kind of smooth out and soften up and if
it doesn't then you can add a little bit
but anyway I went ahead and kept
kneading mine but till eventually I
ended up with something to look like
this alright a fairly stiff but still
relatively supple and moldable dough and
one little tip here if you're pressing
this a new disc like I'm doing here and
the edges are cracking then
is probably a little too dry and on the
other hand if it's kind of sticking to
your fingers it's probably a little too
wet so we're shooting for something in
between which this was and then what
we'll do once our pasta dough is done
and this is very crucial is wrap it up
and pop it in the fridge for at least an
hour to rest
all right lagers fine overnights no
problem but we want to let that rest for
at least an hour which will give me time
to show you the second flour we're gonna
use here and that's gonna be some
semolina all right so we made our pasta
with regular flour but for shaping and
rolling and cutting this much more
coarsely ground semolina flour is gonna
make these go a little easier okay as
you can hopefully see here it's a lot
grittier and it actually reminds me of
that sand they put on shuffle boards in
case that helps but anyway this is what
we're gonna use when we roll and cut our
pasta which by the way is the next step
so let's go ahead and pull our
well-rested dough out of the fridge and
I'm gonna go ahead and divide it into
four pieces and by the way as we work on
this we're gonna want to keep those
pieces we're not using wrapped in
plastic so they don't dry out which
probably wouldn't happen unless you're
really slow but still it's good
technique and then we're gonna want to
do is take each one of these pieces and
kind of roll it out into a tube and then
we'll press that down with our hand to
make sort of a rectangle shape and of
course as usual my dough rectangles are
much closer to a rect oval but don't
worry it's all gonna work out then what
we'll do once we have that pressed out
into some kind of rectangular shape
about a quarter inch thick is we will
start rolling this out on the largest
setting which I'm the stand mixer
attachment means the lowest number and
what I like to do is run it through
twice on this size oh and I should
mention I hate to speed up film but for
this video to save time and I'm gonna do
that a little so you've been warned but
anyway I'm gonna pass that through twice
on number one at which point we'll give
that a light dusting with our semolina
and of course anytime you feel like
that's getting a little bit sticky go
ahead and sprinkle some of that on and
then what we'll do at this point is kind
of fold over both of those rounded ends
to help square everything up and get
this into a little more of that
rectangular shape we're after and once
those ends have been folded over we'll
go ahead and pass that back through on
the largest size which again on this
machine is number one and I'm going to
go ahead and pass that through twice
before we start to decrease the
thickness and eventually roll this out
to as thin as we want and as I mentioned
any time we need to sprinkle a little
more semolina go ahead and then what
we'll do is decrease our thickness by
one setting each time and personally
every time I change the thickness
whether it's from 1 to 2 or 2 to 3 or 3
to 4 I like to run my pasta through
twice for each setting all right is once
enough maybe it's three too many I'm not
sure but I do mind twice and I should
mention at any point during this process
if you want to take a knife for your
bench scraper and kind of clean up the
sides of your dough to make it a little
less jagged or a little straighter go
ahead and if you do don't throw away
those scraps you can just go ahead and
smoosh that into your unrolled dough but
anyway kept rolling that until I got
down to number four and again I like to
pass it through twice on each number and
as you go here they should have a
beautiful beautiful feel to it like some
sort of fine fabric or a very soft and
supple and cool to the touch but not
damp and sticky at all and then what
we'll do once we ultimately reach our
desired thickness is go ahead and cut
that in half because eventually I'm
going to end up being in fettuccine and
I wanted too long okay I'm really not a
big fan of the chin slapping length of
pasta and then what we'll want to do
once our pastas rolled is sprinkled that
generously with some extra semolina and
then we'll let it dry on the counter for
about 15 minutes before we cut it so I
went ahead and rolled one more of my
four pieces and like I said after
dusting with some semolina I'll let it
sit out for about 15 minutes and it's
really not a bad idea about halfway
through to give it a flip and that's it
15 minutes later your pastas ready to
cut and today I'll be using my
fettuccine cutting attachments for like
I said at least half this batch and
because we let that sit and dry a little
it should cut beautifully and we'll go
ahead and run that through and then pile
it up on this sheet pan and once cut I
do like to dust it with electro semolina
and just give it one little extra quick
toss and that's it once cut we could
cook this pasta fresh or of course let
it sit and dry all the way that's
totally up to you and find both ways the
only difference of course will be the
cooking time but anyway let me go ahead
and cook a little bit of this fresh in
some boiling salted water all right
just like dry pasta he got to salt the
water here and since in its fresh form
this is only gonna take about 45 seconds
to a minute to cook make sure your sauce
is ready or whatever you're serving this
pasta with and what we'll do after about
45 to 60 seconds as fish that pasta out
of the water directly into our pan
wanting a little bit of that water to
come with it by the way and besides the
pasta also tossed in a little bit of
freshly chopped herb and I'll go ahead
and toss that with my sauce which today
is simply mushrooms and garlic cooked in
olive oil and butter with like I just
said a little bit of freshly chopped
herb some oregano and parsley and once
toss we'll go ahead and transfer that
into a bowl and top it with some freshly
grated parmigiano Reggiano and that's it
we're ready to enjoy our own homemade
fresh spinach pasta and above and beyond
it's incredible visual beauty as far as
the taste and texture goes I think
you're gonna be pretty impressed and a
lot of this is gonna depend on you not
overcooking it all right like I said
about 45 to 60 seconds is gonna be
plenty okay this should have a firm but
not tough texture or with our pasta
aficionado is called twosome nests and
believe it or not you can actually taste
a little bit of spinach unlike most of
your commercial brands which does
contain some spinach but is mostly
colored with chlorophyll so I just
absolutely loved how this came out and
you know what if you're not into
fettuccine you could do spaghetti or
lasagna ravioli or whatever else you
want including twisting some of the
noodles up like this and making your own
shape which I call twister Oni and
what's cool about making your own fresh
pasta is that any shape you give it
while it's fresh and soft once it dries
like that that will be the shape it
holds when it cooks so I use the rest of
my dough to make some twister Oni as
well as some nice wide hand-cut noodles
which I believe will be called
pappardelle but don't quote me on that
I'm often wrong but never in doubt but
anyway that's it the relatively simple
and easy method for making your own
homemade fresh spinach pasta this is
definitely not something I'm doing every
week but a few times a year does make
for a very fun project and as the old
cliche goes this stuff's gonna be way
better than anything you're gonna find
at the store which is just one of the
reasons I really do hope you give this a
try soon so head over to food wishes
comm for all the
greeting amounts of Morpho as usual and
as always enjoy
you
