Spinach Flavored Pasta Dough

1 cup unbleached flour
1 cup semolina flour
3 large eggs, room temperature, slightly beaten
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Pinch of sea or kosher salt
4-6 Tablespoons of cooked pureed spinach.
1/2 cup water reserve

1 cup bench/dusting flour

Mixing dough

Combine flour and salt. Form a mound and create a well. Add oil,eggs and spinach into the well. If the mix is too dry, add one tablespoon of water as needed. Gradually
combine the flour to the eggs, oil and spinach. Knead dough to desired constancy. Add flour if the dough sticks to your hands. Pureed spinach will help prevent the pasta from sticking to each other in the Hand Crank machine. Cover kneaded dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least ½ hour.

Preparing the dough with a hand crank pasta machine.

Divide dough into hand size pieces. Dust the dough with bench flour if the dough is
too sticky. Start thick and gradually crank to desired thinness. Fold ends of pasta
sheet to the center and then rotate it so that the folded edges are on the sides. Cut
and place on either a flat surface or hang on a pasta drying rack.This type of fresh
pasta will stay fresh in the refrigerator for about a day or it can be air dried on your pasta rack and then stored in an air tight container and frozen.

Cooking Hand Made Pasta

Gently drop pasta into a large pot of salted boiling water and cook until tender or al
dente for about two to three minutes. Do not over-cook the pasta to a mush. Drain well and serve.

A great complement to spinach flavored pasta is spinach flavored Alfredo sauce. After slowly melting one stick of unsalted butter, add two to three tablespoons of pureed spinach, one cup of heavy cream, a pinch of nutmeg and about half a cup of grated Parmesan cheese. This produces a sweet pastel spinach flavored Alfredo sauce. Spinach could also be infused into a Bechamel sauce.

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