~ "By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established; Through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures." ~ "Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing" ~ "But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy." ~ "Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths."~

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Homemade Multi Colored Pasta




Homemade Striped Colored Pasta....My first attempt at making homemade pasta...handmade...no pasta machine! I have to admit that this recipe was inspired by a blog I visited recently. I was blown away with her creativity! You can visit her blog here. Her creations are amazing! Oh, I forgot to mention that her blog is in German!:) ...pictures are fabulous...and if you know a bit of German you will understand it more than I did!

I just loved that she used natural food colors and not any food dyes. I just used a basic pasta dough that I mixed the various colors into it to make the stripes. I just really used my own amounts with the coloring and I found out later after I boiled them that the colors faded a bit(though I think that is normal). Next time, I will knead in more of the colors. I found some colored powders at my local Natural Foods store. They didn't have too many choices...but, I was grateful for what I found. Enough to make my pasta creations!

I used beetroot powder,tomato powder,barley powder and the regular uncolored dough. You can easily substitute for the barley (broccoli,spinach,parsley,cilantro). The tomato powder can be substituted by carrot powder. You can also use turmeric to make a yellow dough. This is fun to be creative with....how about checkers instead of stripes, bi colored, tri colored or just making individual colors? Have fun with this recipe! Hope you enjoy...

Pasta dough ingredients:(or use your own favorite pasta dough recipe)

1 cup flour
1 cup semolina flour
2 eggs
2-3 TBS water
1 tsp salt
2 tsp oil
food powders (beetroot,tomato,spinach etc... amount depends on how bright you want the colors to be...start with 1 tsp.)
*you can just use eggs instead of adding oil and water...add 3 eggs instead of 2

Directions:
1. In a large bowl combine and whisk semolina flour, flour, and salt.
2. Make a well in the middle and add eggs.
3. Mix and incorporate the eggs with your hands.
4. Add oil and knead...adding 1 TBS of water to dough until all the flour is incorporated into the dough.
5.Split the dough into 5 parts.
6. Add a different color powder to 3 of the dough pieces leaving 2 dough pieces plain colored.
 7. Knead in the colored powder into the dough for approx. 8-9 minutes by hand or until smooth and elastic/pliable.
8. Roll each dough piece out to 1/4 inch or so(depending how wide you want the lines to be).
9. Place each dough piece on top of each other, alternating with a plain color to make stripes.
Make sure you seal the layers with a bit of water( you can use a damp/wet towel to wipe the layers).
10. Cut rough ends off and then cut into 1 inch strips.
11. Seal 2-3 strips together(use the damp towel).
12. Gently roll pasta dough to a 1/8 inch thickness. If you have a pasta machine, this step would be much easier!
13. Use pasta dough to make ravioli.... or make fettuccine.... or make bow ties.
14. Cook in salted boiling water till desired doneness.

19 comments:

Tami said...

Wow! This is unlike any pasta I've seen before. So cool!

Cheryl Barker said...

Exactly what I was looking for. You're an amazing cook figuring this all out on your own. Where do you get coloring powders?

Ellie said...

Cher, I got my powders from a whole foods store...But, I think the beetroot powder washes out in cthe cooking process. I noticed that beet juice will be much better. You just process some beets and add some water . Strain and use some of the bright colored liquid. Hope that helps.

Anonymous said...

Amazing! I'll be trying this! I was searching for colored pasta and that's how I came to your site! Nice job! :)

Ellie said...

Thanks Ginny for stopping by and leaving a nice comment ...I hope you have fun making it.

Anonymous said...

Beautiful pasta. I also use a food procvessor to blend steamed spinach into basic pasta dough for green, tomato paste for red, and squid ink for black, and I also use canned beet juice for pink. You have to use a little more flour to make up the consistency of the wet ingredients but these are also colourful ideas if you have trouble finding the powdered vegetable version.

Ellie said...

Anonymous,
Thanks for stopping by...I LOVE your suggestions. Wonderful alternative for the powdered color versions. My mom used fresh beet juice and said the color was so beautiful and bright... you don't need much. So, for those of you who can't find the powdered versions...these are wonderful alternatives.~Ellie

Anonymous said...

You could have said they were imported from Italy, made by a professional pasta chef and I would have believed every single word. Great job!

Gala said...

Gorgeous, great job!

Saucy Rice said...

Those are beautiful!

Shannon Crissey said...

I've had fancy colored pastas before, but now I can make them?! I would have too much fun with that! Especially enjoy the fettucine, what a way to spice up a plain dish. Looks easy enough too, I'll certainly try this some day!

vanillasugarblog said...

well that doesn't look as hard as I always thought it would. very nice!

Ellie said...

Gala, Saucy Rice, Anonymous, Shannon and Dawn. I really,really appreciate your kind comments! Thanks for taking the time to write such encouraging notes...
It really isn't that difficult to make the pasta, and I had tons of fun:).~Ellie

roseange said...

Thanks for posting this!

I saw some of these in a fancy food store, and the price was unbelievable....I hoped I would be able to find it online, and my search took me straight here. You have a lovely blog!

Spice said...

Lovely blog.....this pasta is so beautiful, reminds me of multi colored taffy we use to eat as kids.....whenever I have some time on hand I need to try this....thanks for sharing...

daisy said...

Hi, Ellie! I wanted to let you know that I attempted your multi-colored pasta, with great success! Your instructions were spot on. Thanks for sharing your recipe. You can check out my post here: http://daisyt13.wordpress.com/2012/04/19/multi-colored-pasta-dough/. I link back to this post to give you credit.

daisy

Ellie said...

Oh Daisy, I'm thrilled you enjoyed making the colored pasta and that the recipe came out for you, too!
It was especially kind of you to link back... really appreciate it. Thanks so much for your feedback and for taking the time to let me know.
Now, I'm gonna have to run and check your post:)...

Anonymous said...

You said your strips are an inch wide, layered then you push it through the roller. how do you get it initially thin enough to be rolled? do you roll it by hand first, or should someone with smaller roller, make their strips say, half in wide.

~Culinary Student

Ellie said...

Culinary Student, Yes, I mentioned in the directions to roll the strips out by hand first before placing it in the pasta machine...to about a 1/8th of inch. This will ensure it can fit the pasta machine. However, I did this all by hand... and never used a pasta machine:). Hope that helps... and thanks for stopping by!