Leaning Vegetarian

This base noodle dough is also great for ravioli and pirogi. Posts on those to follow soon.

Ingredients

3 c. (or so) flour (all purpose works; semolina is probably more authentic)
2 eggs
1 tbsp salt
4-5 kale leaves (or spinach, chard, beet greens – pick your favorite sturdy green)

3/4 cup veggie sausage and/or ground beef for the meat eaters (more or less as you like; increase/decrease spices to match)
2 tbsp basil
2 tbsp oregano
1 tsp chopped garlic
bread crumbs

olive oil
sliced garlic and parmesan and/or sauce of your choice

Process

Mix the veggie sausage with half the basil, oregano, and garlic; roll into meatballs.

Fry these till browned in a bit of the olive oil. Mix the ground beef with the rest of the basil, oregano, and garlic and a little bit of bread crumbs to pick up just a bit of the moisture, but not enough that they feel dry. Fry these till browned as well.

Steam or saute the kale until it’s wilted. Put it in a food processor and chop into fine pieces (I like the speckled effect; if you’d prefer a more solid color, take it to a puree consistency).

You can use a food processor for this step, but I have warm fuzzy memories of my grandmother mixing noodles on the counter, so I do it there too.  Pile three cups of flour and the salt on a clean countertop, make a well, and crack your eggs into the center.

Use a fork to beat the eggs in the well, gradually pulling in more flour as you go.

While it’s still pretty wet, add the kale. Keep mixing until you have a sturdy dough that does not readily stick to the counter – you may not use all the flour, or you can add a bit more water as you prefer. Knead this until it feels smooth and mixed.

Roll this into a round, and let it rest.  Set up your boiling pot (I like a dutch oven with lots of water) and start warming any sauce you like. We tried this with thinly sliced garlic, browned lightly in some olive oil, with a bit of parmesan on top, and also with some store-bought red sauce.

Keep rolling the dough out until it’s quite thin – keep checking that it’s not sticking to the counter and sprinkle with flour and flip over as needed. If you’ve got a pasta maker, use that – I don’t, so we do this by hand. I like kind of chunky noodles so I take it down to about 1/16″ – they’ll get thicker as they cook, so take that into account.

I use a pizza cutter to slice thin strips – there’s no requirement that these be any particular length, and only need to be consistent enough in length and width to cook evenly. Also check that yours is as dull as ours is so you don’t cut up your countertop.

If you’re not cooking all the pasta now, you can dry these by draping them over a spoon handle propped between two pots, or bag them for the fridge if you’re using them within the week.

Once the water is at a full boil, add the noodles gradually and make sure they stay at a boil.  This will take around 5 minutes to cook, depending on the size of your noodle – check them often. Drain, flip with a bit of olive oil (or the sliced garlic/oil mix if you’ve done that), add sauce and parmesan to your taste, and top with the veggie or beef meatballs. This is also tasty if you swap out the kale and use roasted red peppers,  or sauteed mushrooms, or black pepper, and we’re going to try a toasted chile pasta here eventually.

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