Pasta Verde

Cooking Instructions

Remove the stems completely from the spinach, leaving only the leaves.

Place a large saucepan containing a large quantity of cold water on the heat. Meanwhile rinse the spinach leaves thoroughly.

When the water has reached the boiling point, add salt, then the spinach leaves and cook for 10 to 12 minutes. Drain the spinach, cool under cold running water, and squeeze very dry. Chop the spinach extremely fine and measure 1 heaping tbsp of it. (If there is a little left over, discard it.) At this point, using the remaining ingredients, follow the directions on pages 159 - 162, noting that this recipe uses 1-3/4 cups of flour for each egg instead of 1 cup, and placing the chopped spinach in the well along with the other ingredients. Follow the remaining directions exactly, but the drying time will be a little bit longer.

Place the flour in a mound on a pasta board. Make a well in the center and put in the egg, olive oil, and salt. With a fork, first mix together the yolk, white, oil, and salt, then begin to incorporate the flour from the inner rim of the well, always incorporating fresh flour from the lower part, pushing it under the dough to the dough detached.

When almost half of the flour has been absorbed, start kneading, always using the palms of your hands in a folding motion, not the fingers. Continue absorbing the flour until almost all of it has been incorporated. The small fraction of flour that remains unabsorbed should be passed through a sifter to remove bits of dough and kept to coat dough during the succeeding steps. Now you are ready to use the pasta machine.

The machine has two main parts, one for rolling, the other for cutting. The first part of the machine consists of two rollers, the distance between which can be adjusted by a little wheel on the side. On the opposite side fits a detachable handle, to turn the rollers. The second part, for cutting, is sometimes detachable. It consists of two rows of teeth, one to cut into narrow strips (taglierini), the other wide (the width of tagliatelle).

Attach the machine to your table by tightening the clamp at the bottom. (See illustration opposite for the position of the body in relation to the pasta machine.) Set the wheel for the rollers at the widest setting.

If the dough has been made with more than one egg, cut it into the same number of pieces as eggs or several eggs, if you can handle it. Repeat the following steps with each piece of dough.

Turning the handle, pass the dough through the rollers. Fold the dough into thirds and press down (see illustration opposite). Sprinkle with flour and repeat the rolling and folding eight to ten times, until the dough is very smooth. (These steps take the place of hand kneading.)

Move the wheel to the next notch, which places the rollers a little closer together. Pass the dough through rollers once; do not fold. Move the wheel to each successive notch, each time passing the dough through the rollers once. After passing each time, sprinkle the dough with a little flour. Each successive notch produces a thinner layer of pasta. Stop when the layer reaches the thickness desired; I always go to the last notch.

Caution: Beginning with the step in which you first pass the pasta through the rollers without folding, do not hold it with your fingers, but let it hang over your whole left hand.

When the long sheet of pasta has finished passing through the rollers, take the end gently in your fingers and carefully pull the layer out to its full length, free of folds. Sprinkle a cotton dishtowel with flour and lay the sheet of pasta upon it until a thin film forms, before cutting. If the kitchen is hot or drafty, cover the pasta with another dishtowel.

Green pasta may be used for tagliatelle and taglierini.

Tagliatelle: For tagliatelle, simply pass the sheet of pasta through wide teeth of the cutting section (see illustration opposite).

Taglierini: For taglierini, pass the sheets of pasta through the teeth of the cutting section.

To cut green pasta for lasagne or cannelloni, see Cannelloni Con Carne [see below].

With a jagged-edged wheel (pastry wheel), cut the pasta sheets to make squares.