Recipes

Adding spinach to the dough gives a deep green color and definite flavor. The added moisture from the spinach makes the dough softer and a little trickier to handle than basic egg pasta. Having extra flour on hand easily rectifies this.

Unlike many ingredients commonly added to fresh pasta, porcini do add substantial flavor to this dough.

This recipe produces pasta with a real sting. Lovers of hop can add more chili to taste. Choose sauces that will not be overshadowed by the fiery pasta.

The Saracens or Crusaders brought buckwheat to Italy. These noodles, called pizzoccheri are a specialty of Valtellina in Lombardy. Buckwheat is very nutritious with a lovely, nutty flavor. Because it has no gluten, it must be combined with wheat flour when making pasta.

In Tuscany, oil is added to the dough, making it softer and somewhat easeir to work than Emilian egg pasta (sfoglia). Emiliams argue that the absence of oil makes the dough more porous and so able to absorb sauces more readily. Ideally, fresh pasta should be made with 00 flour (a refined white flour) or, if this is not available, a good unbleached all-purpose flour. Do not use semolina flour, which is sometimes marketed as "pasta flour." If using a flavoring, add it to the egg in step 1.