Homemade Spinach Pasta with Basil-Parsley-Cashew Pesto

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See original recipe at: lemonsandanchovies.com

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recipe bylemonsandanchovies.com

Categories:
- Cashew
- Dinner
- heathly
- Homemade
- Lunch
- Lunchbox
- Pasta
- Spinach

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Ingredients:

***For the Pasta***
3 eggs
2¼ cups flour (00 or all-purpose)
2 Tablespoons frozen chopped spinach (after it’s been cooked and with all the moisture squeezed out. I just eyeballed the amount.)
Water for cooking the spinach
***For the Pesto***
3 cups packed fresh basil leaves (I pack mine tightly)
1 cup packed fresh Italian parsley (again, packed tightly)
¾ cup olive oil (add more if you like a bit more oil in your pesto)
½ – ⅔ cup roasted, unsalted cashews, dry toasted in a pan for 2 – 3 minutes on medium heat until fragrant.
3 – 4 cloves garlic, peeled
Salt to taste
½ cup freshly grated parmigiano
Juice of about half a lemon

To prepare the pasta, first cook the spinach. Bring a small amount of water to boil in a small pan and add the frozen spinach (I use the loose pack in bags). Cook for just 3-4 minutes then drain the water and squeeze out as much liquid as you can from the spinach. You should have about two tablespoons. You can chop the spinach further but I found this to be unnecessary. Crack the eggs into a bowl and add the spinach (after it’s cooled a bit). Beat with a fork until combined.
Pour the flour on a clean work surface, create a well in the middle and add the egg/spinach mixture. Start whisking the mixture with a fork, taking in flour a little at a time. Continue to do this until you’ve incorporated enough flour into the eggs so the mixture isn’t runny anymore. Before incorporating the rest of the flour, set a bit aside, maybe a few tablespoons to ¼ cup. Mix the rest of the flour (minus what you just set aside) into the egg mixture using your hands. If the dough seems too wet, add the rest of the flour you set aside. Form the dough into a ball and knead by pulling one end of the dough toward you then with the heel of your hand, push it away. Perform this motion twice then rotate the dough 45° and repeat. Keep doing this until the dough is smooth, about 3-5 minutes is good. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let it rest for about 30 minutes before rolling and cutting. To roll and cut, follow the instructions on your pasta machine. Note: I found that the residual moisture from spinach required me to use a bit more of the flour I set aside than for a classic egg pasta. I also had to dust the dough pieces with flour before rolling them out in the machine and before cutting them. You can cut using a pasta machine or cut them by hand like I’ve done here. To cook, bring a pot of water to a boil, add salt and cook the pasta for 3-4 minutes or until they float to the top. Drain and set aside.
To prepare the pesto: put all the ingredients, except the cheese and lemon juice, in a food processor and process until just a little chunky. Transfer the pesto into a bowl and stir in the parmigiano and lemon juice. Add salt to taste. Stir into the spinach pasta (you will have more pesto than you need for the roughly 1 pound of pasta in this recipe). Plate and serve. I like to drizzle with a little extra olive oil, top with more cashews and Parmigiano-Reggiano.

See original recipe at lemonsandanchovies.com