I heard from an awful lot of you after I posted "Making Fresh Pasta" last month. Many of you tried making fresh pasta for the first time and I was so happy about that. I think the video that was in the post showed how easy it was and some of you got out your pasta rollers for the first time.
As promised, here is a recipe that uses both spinach pasta and plain pasta. It's a classic Italian dish called "Straw and Hay". I always love combining two different colored pastas in a dish. It's delicious with the salty prosciutto, sweet peas and cheese.
Straw and Hay Pasta
for a printable recipe, click here
makes about 14 ounces of fresh pasta.
Ingredients:
for the pasta doughs:
- 2 ounces fresh spinach
- 2 large eggs
- 1-1/2 cups flour
for the sauce:
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 3 ounces prosciutto, diced
- 3/4 cups frozen peas
- 1-1/2 cups Half-and-Half
- fresh thyme
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
Instructions:
Make the pastas
For the spinach pasta: Steam the spinach lightly and squeeze out all of the water in a towel. Chop very finely.
Place 3/4 cup of flour on counter and create a well. Break one egg into the well and whisk with a fork. Add spinach and whisk into the egg well. Slowly start bringing in the flour with the fork and mix until most of the flour is incorporated. Use a pastry scraper to help scrape up the dough. Add more flour, a little at a time and knead until a nice dough forms that is not too sticky. Wrap in floured plastic wrap and and let rest on the counter for at least 20 minutes.
For the plain pasta: Repeat recipe above, omitting the spinach. The plain pasta will take a little less flour than the spinach pasta. Just add enough flour to make a nice dough that is not too sticky and not too dry.
After the doughs have rested, run the dough through pasta rollers until you achieve your desired thickness and let the pasta sheets dry a little on a floured countertop, turning once *. Flour the sheets well and run through the fettuccine cutters on your pasta machine. Lay the pasta on a sheet pan and toss gently with flour. Refrigerate, covered with plastic wrap, if you are not immediately cooking them. When you do cook them, boil them for only about a minute and a half. Drain well before you toss with this sauce.
Make the sauce
In a large skillet, heat one tablespoon of olive oil in pan and add prosciutto and peas. Warm gently in the olive oil. Add the half-n-half, thyme and pepper and simmer gently for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the cheese. Adjust seasoning for salt and pepper to taste.
Toss with freshly cooked, drained pasta.
* For more details and a video on making fresh pasta, see my post on "Making Fresh Pasta".
