Spinach Egg Noodles

A few weeks ago the spinach in my garden started to bolt so I picked most of what was left. I was trying to think of interesting ways to use it up and thought Spinach Pasta would be fun. I found this recipe that called for fresh spinach and didn't require blanching and draining in advance. The process was pretty simple. I had fun making these colorful noodles and they tasted good, too. I made part of the batch into ribbon noodles and I used the other part for lasagna noodles for supper. (I managed to slip some spinach in the filling of the lasagna, too.)

Fresh Spinach Pasta
1/4 cup water
2  1/2 cups packed spinach, fresh
1 tsp. salt
2 eggs
2  1/2  cups flour

1. Place spinach and water in a sauce pan; cover and simmer 5 minutes.

2. Pour the spinach and water from the sauce pan into a blender. Process until the spinach is smooth and pureed thoroughly.

3. Pour the spinach into a bowl. Stir in the salt. Allow to cool slightly before adding the eggs so as not to cook them; blend well.

 







4. Add the flour to make a stiff dough. Knead well.

5. Cover and rest  for 30 minutes.

6.Divide the dough in half and roll out into a thin rectangle, about 21"x14". Allow to dry 30 minutes before cutting.

7. To cut thin ribbon noodles use a pizza wheel and a straight edge (like a ruler). Hold your straight edge in place while you run your pizza wheel along the edge. Move the straight edge over to make the desired width noodles.

8. Pick a few noodles up and loosely wrap them around a couple of your fingers. place the "noodle nest" on a drying rack. Dry the noodles at least 30 minutes before cooking.

9. To cook fresh noodles boil 3 quarts of water. Add noodles and cook for 3-5 minutes. You can also freeze the noodles for later use and cook them straight from the freezer.

Enjoy!