Beet Pasta Dough
I love making holidays or special occasions even more fun through the food we eat! It’s always the best seeing the kids’ smiling faces when they discover that their food has a special little “twist” to go along with whatever is going on, even as they get older.
If you are anything like me and not a lover of beets (I think they taste like straight up dirt every single time regardless of preparation), don’t worry….I can personally assure you that you can NOT actually taste any dirty beet flavor! You just get the most vibrant, amazing, deep red color that’s absolutely perfect for Valentine’s Day!
You can use this recipe to make regular noodles, use it to make sweet little heart ravioli, or regular square ravioli! The ravioli can be filled with ricotta, your favorite ravioli filling, or a personal favorite around here is Lamb and Caramelized Onion Ravioli!
Beet Pasta Dough Recipe:
1 small/medium size beet
1/3 cup olive oil, plus 1 - 2 teaspoons
3 1/4 cups all purpose flour
5 eggs
Preheat oven to 400*, wash the beet under cool running water to remove any dirt; coat with 1 - 2 teaspoons olive oil. Wrap beet in parchment paper and then wrap in aluminum foil or place oil coated beet into a small roasting pan with a lid.
Bake beet for approximately 40 minutes, or until tender when poked with a fork. Remove from oven and let cool.
Once beet has cooled, use your fingers or a butter knife to remove the outer skin. Blend beet with 1/3 cup olive oil in a food processor or blender until smooth.
Add flour to a large mixing bowl; make a well in the center and add eggs and the beet puree.
Use a fork (or your hands) to slowly begin working flour into the egg and beet mixture. Continue until thoroughly combined. A small amount of additional flour can be added as needed if the dough is still sticky. Work dough into a ball and knead until smooth, 1 - 2 minutes.
Return ball of dough to the mixing bowl and cover with a lid; let dough rest for 1 hour.
Divide dough into 4 pieces
Hand rolling pasta: Lightly flour counter/work surface and use a rolling pin to roll dough into a rectangle, adding small amounts of flour as needed to prevent sticking; envelope fold the dough; roll dough and envelope fold 2 more times before rolling out to desired thickness
Rolling with pasta machine: Lightly flour dough, run through pasta machine roller on widest setting (for some machines its the largest number and on others its the smallest number); envelope fold dough, run through pasta roller again on widest setting; repeat envelope fold and going through on widest setting 1-2 additional times before gradually stepping down to roll dough thinner until at desired thickness. (ex: my pasta roller goes from a 7 (largest/thickest setting) to a 1 (smallest/thinnest setting), for ravioli I work down to a 3 occasionally a 2)Cutting by hand: you can flour pasta dough sheet after rolling to prevent sticking, fold dough as many times as needed to easily slice into noodles using a knife or pizza cutter; repeat for remaining sheets of pasta dough
Cutting using pasta machine: roll all sections of dough to desired thickness before beginning to cut into noodles, the machine will cut dough easier after rolled pasta sheets have sat/dried for 10-15 minutes; cut as machine instructsFor Ravioli: leave in the full dough sheet, add filling to one sheet, lightly brush around filling with a beaten egg, carefully place a second sheet on top, use your hands to gently press around filling to work air out and seal the dough. Use a pizza cutter to cut into ravioli or use a cookie cutter to cut into a shape
Flour noodles as needed after cutting to prevent cut noodles from sticking together while waiting to be cooked; you can twist into little “nests” if desired
To cook: bring a large pot of salted water to a rolling boil, add cut noodles and let boil for 2-3 minutes (3 - 4 for ravioli); noodles will float to top when done.
Drain using a colander.