Beetroot - Pasta

Cooking the beetroot that I got from the Farmers Market the other day was very interesting.  I had two dishes so far, one was double cooked beetroot to garnish meat dishes, and the other one was beetroot pasta.  The dry pasta was ready, I had no chance to cook it, and now it is stored in my pantry.

The beetroot works well for both dishes, the dry pasta has a rustic look, and the double cooked beetroot was interestingly delicious.  I boiled peeled and sliced beetroot until cooked, then cooked them again with honey to glace, added some mixed fresh chopped herbs to serve. The double cooked beetroot was excellent garnished for my mini beef pies.

Beetroot Pasta

This is the recipe for the beetroot pasta for you.

Beetroot Pasta

Ingredients

1cup plain flour

1 egg

2 tablespoons juice of the cooked beetroot

Mix all ingredients together to make a soft dough

Knead lightly for a few seconds

Rest the dough for an hour or more

Knead the dough again; roll the dough into a thin sheet

Keep on rolling until you got a thickness which is suitable for pasta

Cut into strips, beautiful strips or any shapes that you like

Cook in salted boiling water for 8 minutes

(Or, you can leave it until the pasta is dry and cook it for next time)

To serve

Serve the pasta with meat sauce or dress it with olive oil and Parmesan cheese

It is my original recipe if you wish to add more egg for the pasta, using two eggs instead of one, I think it is going to be good too.

Happy cooking.

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Variation of Vegetables Pasta.

Spinach Pasta

Boiling the spinach to make the puree

That was my first experiment to make pasta with spinach flavour.  I wanted spinach taste predominantly, only one egg was added into almost half a cup of spinach pureed then mix in 250 grams of plain flour.  The dough was hard and dry, I could have added more liquid.  I rested the dough for two hours before rolling out to make a thin sheet, then cut into strips.

The Process of making pasta with spinach flavour.

Add in the spinach pureed-1 egg to flour, mix and knead lightly into a dough

Roll the dough to make smooth and thin sheets

Hang the sheet to dry to make lasagna 

Or cut the flat sheet of pastry into strips 

Drying the pasta

Dry the pasta on a tray and keep it away in a clean place

Keep the pasta to dry on a tray or cook it straight away, simply put the pasta into salted boiling water, and cook for 6-8 minutes.  Dress the pasta with anything that you fancy.  I would cook mushroom sauce or chicken in white sauce to go with the spinach pasta.

I used silverbeet (the leaves only) from my backyard to do the pasta, instead of spinach.

To Be Continued.  Stay Tuned

Susy