Homemade Beet Pasta
Purchased pasta with homemade sauce – good. Homemade pasta with homemade sauce – even better!
Pasta making is one of the things that I miss the most after leaving the professional kitchen. This process was a significant stress relief, and I could do it for hours listening to jazz music.
A few days ago I felt down and stressed and thought about refreshing my skill and making some pasta at home. The only obstacle for me was the absence of any pasta machines at home. Since I have never tried making pasta with only a knife and a ruler, I went for it and gave it a try. To my own surprise pasta came out great but needed a little bit of work on the shape. That was nothing comparing to what I expected.
If you don’t own any pasta machines – that’s fine, you can do it using a sharp knife, a ruler and a rolling pin. The process requires a little bit of strength and time, but trust me, you will never come back to pre-packed pasta again!
The recipe yields about 10-15 nests of pasta or about 5-7 servings, so you can make it ahead, freeze it and use whenever.
Serving size:
About 5-7 servings
Ingredients:
1 cup of 00 flour
1 cup of regular flour
5 pinches of salt
0.5 cups of cooked and pureed beets
2 eggs
Nutritional value per serving (approx):
207 Calories
2.2g Fat
38.5g Carbs
1.8g Fiber
7.8g Protein
Method:
If using raw beets, boil them or roast them in the oven and chill completely. Then peel the beets and puree in a blender. Make a little bit extra in case your dough comes out dry.
Combine 00 flour with regular flour and add salt in a bowl. Mix well. I would suggest using a bowl, so you don’t make a huge mess in the kitchen.
Make a hole in the middle of the flour, add eggs and beet puree.
Start folding the dough until it comes together. If it looks too dry, add more beets. The dough should not be sticky at all.
Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and keep kneading for about 10 minutes until it gets smooth.
Wrap it in plastic and let it sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes.
Unwrap the dough and transfer it to a floured surface one more time.
Start rolling out the dough into a thin (2mm max) sheet using a rolling pin.
After the sheet and nice, even and flat, take a sharp knife and cut off the edges, so the sheet is square or rectangle shape.
Start cutting the strips of dough by using a ruler and a sharp knife. My strips were 1 cm wide. You can choose any length.
Then, lay out your strips parallel to each other and shape them into nice nests. Ideally, the weight of one nest equals one portion so try to make them 55 – 60 grams each.
Boil your pasta in salted water for 3-5 minutes or freeze it up to 6 months.
