Green Pasta Dough
I’m not usually one for coloured pasta dough, with the exception of green dough. This is a wonderful, egg-yolk enriched dough that is perfect for stuffed pasta, lasagne sheets or ribbon cut pasta. Using a high-speed blender will be your best bet at achieving a homogenous colour - instead of a slightly speckled finish - though using a food processor is fine and won’t have much impact on the finished dough besides visually.
If you have extra purée leftover and are making stuffed pasta, you can add it to whatever filling you’re making for an extra green kick! Otherwise, freeze any leftover purée and throw into soups, sauces or your next batch of green dough.
Green Pasta Dough
Yields approx. 550 g / 4 servings
Ingredients
200g cavolo nero or spinach - yielding ~150g purée for the dough
300g soft wheat flour, tipo 00
50g semolina flour
50g egg yolks (roughly 3 large egg yolks)
Method
Remove the kale leaves from their stems (if you’re using spinach you can include the stems) and blanch in boiling water for about 60 seconds
Transfer to an ice bath to cool and keep vibrant.
Once cool, squeeze excess water from the greens before transferring to a high speed blender
Blend until you have a smooth purée. If you need to, add a dash of water to help bind the greens into a purée.
You should have at least 150g purée.
Place the flours in a mound on your work surface and make a well in the centre.
Add your egg yolks and 150g of purée and begin to whisk to until you have a thick custard-like consistency, incorporating a little bit of flour as you do.
Switch to a bench scraper and start to scoop and flip the flour from the outside edge over and onto the egg mix in the middle, using a cutting motion to help mix it in with the flour. Continue to do this around all sides until you have a shaggy dough.
Begin to knead the dough vigorously, using the heel of your hand to roll and push the dough away from you a couple of times, before turning 45 degrees and continuing the motion.
After 5 minutes of kneading, cover the dough in something airtight and let it rest for 5-10 minutes. This will allow the dough to rehydrate and the gluten relax.
Return to the dough and continue kneading for another 5-7 minutes. The dough should be smooth and elastic, and not sticky at all.
Cover the dough again and let it rest for a minimum of 30 minutes at room temperature before rolling and shaping.
If you need to leave your dough for longer, rest it in the fridge and bring it to room temperature before rolling and shaping.
