Farfalle

I am taking a break from the flavored pasta today (don't worry, there's more to come). The post today is about home made farfalle. It is a pasta shape that the whole family can participate and help and have fun.

Start with the basic recipe for the dough. Once the dough is ready, use the roller attachment to open it, but leave the thickness one setting thicker than you normally use for fettuccine (I used setting 4 for the farfalle). Make sure you sprinkle flour over the surface you will be working on, but not too much, or it will be harder for the farfalle to hold its shape.

Make sure you start the preparation with enough time as it can take about 1 hour to work through the dough, shaping the individual pieces.

Preparation

You will need a crimped pastry cutter for the sides.

Crimped pastry cutter

After rolling the dough, use the crimped pastry cutter to cut the dough vertically for the side of the farfalle. Use a regular cutter or pizza cutter to cut horizontally and cut away any excess on the sides to leave all pieces of roughly the same size.

Dough after cutting

Start by separating one piece to work on.

One piece separated for shaping

Pinch the middle of the dough, in the center.

Pinching the center

Pinch again, this time joining the sides to the middle pinch.

Final pinch

One down, many to go:

Farfalle is ready

Place the shaped farfalle on a tray before cooking.

Tray ready to cook

Cook the pasta on boiling water and season it to taste.

Final result

White sauce

Salt, pepper and olive oil

Give it a try and have the whole family help.

Basil Fettucine

Following up on the series of flavored recipes, today we tested basil fettuccine. The preparation is the same as Spinach Pasta, except we will be using basil instead of spinach.

Ingredients

• 2 whole eggs
• 1 handful of fresh basil leaves
• 1.5 cups of whole wheat flour

Preparation

In the blender, put the two eggs and the basil leaves. Blend really well but do not sift the results. The color after blending may be brownish but do not despair, it will look good again after cooking!

Incorporate the flour slowly into the egg/basil mixture, working the dough until the dough is no longer sticky to be rolled or extruded.

Final Result

For this post, I just rolled the pasta using the roller attachment and made fettuccine. I garnished the plate with freshly cut basil leaves and I have to say the result was awesome! Hope you enjoy.

Basil Fettuccine

Beet Pasta

Following up on the Spinach Pasta recipe, today I will explore using beets to flavor and color the pasta. The preparation is the same, except we will be using beets instead of spinach.

Ingredients

• 2 whole eggs
• 1 small raw beet
• 1.5 cups of whole wheat flour

Preparation

In the blender, put the two eggs and the peeled beet. Blend really well and sift the results to allow for a soft dough at the end and to remove any piece of the beet that the blender may have missed.

Incorporate the flour slowly into the egg/beet mixture, working the dough until the dough is no longer sticky to be rolled or extruded.

Final Result

For this post, I just rolled the pasta using the roller attachment and made raviolis using a cookie cutter or ravioli stamp.

Beet Ravioli

Beet Valentine's Day Ravioli

Beet Fettuccine

Spinach Spaghetti

Spinach pasta is one of our favorite flavors. It is extremely tasty and soft. Best of all, it is very simple to make. I will show you how to make the basic spinach dough recipe, which in this post will be used to make spaghetti. The same recipe can be used for fettuccine or lasagna with no modifications.

Ingredients

• 2 whole eggs
• fresh raw spinach (washed and dried), about two handfuls
• 1.5 cups of whole wheat flour (more may be needed due to the liquid from the spinach itself)

Cooked spinach could also be used, but the best results are achieved when you use the raw spinach.

Preparation

In the blender, put the two eggs and the spinach and blend them all well. Mix the spinach and eggs mixture with the flour slowly, working the dough as described in the basic recipe. For this recipe, I am using the Kitchen Aid Pasta Extruder Attachment with the spaghetti plate. It is important to get the dough not too wet or it will stick a lot to the inside of the extruder and it will make the clean up much harder.

Once the dough is ready, start feeding it to the extruder in little balls about the size of a walnut. I set the Kitchen Aid mixer to speed number 6. Once the pasta starts coming out, cut it to your desired length.

Spinach Spaghetti

Result

As you can see above, the results are pretty good. Cook in boiling water, paying attention to not overcook it as fresh pasta cooks much quicker. Here's the final product.

Final result in the plate with Parmesan cheese

Below, you can find a few other variations of this same recipe. The spinach lasagna is extremely good and will receive a post in the future.

Spinach Fettuccine

Spinach Lasagna