Fresh Pasta with Spinach, Mushroom & Mustard Sauce

July 1, 2010 · by · in

I have a freezer full of spinach thanks to my vegetable garden this year. I’ve already used a lot of it to make Spinach Pesto, I’ve been using it a little here and there in my other usual meals too but I wanted to make something new with it.

So I crack open my copy of The Flavor Bible (which was a gift from my husband and is wonderful by the way) to have a look and see what kind of flavours go with spinach. Usually when I check in there I find that somewhere in my head I already knew the things that taste good with one another, but it helps me to feel more confident about putting flavors together. After a few minutes looking up different things, matching and cross-checking I normally have an idea for a meal.

We’ve been eating a whole lot of pasta again, as we usually do when it’s hot outside. I try to keep salad greens on hand but I’m generally thwarted by my 8 year old refrigerator, it has been used and abused by who knows how many occupants of this rental apartment and doesn’t really do a great job at what it’s supposed to do. So for us, pasta is easier for summer. It’s light and I don’t generally have to have the stove on for too long to cook it, which is an issue in the summer when you don’t have air conditioning and it’s 89F (32C) and humid outside.

Fresh Pasta
Recipe very slightly modified from the back of a package of Bob’s Red Mill Semolina Flour

Combine 1 cup unbleached all purpose flour with 1/2 cup semolina flour and 1/2 tsp salt. Add 2 beaten eggs, 2 tbsp water, 2 tbsp olive oil and mix to make a stiff dough.

Knead for 10 minutes or until dough is elastic, then wrap dough in a towel and let it rest for 20 minutes.

On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to the desired thickness and cut as desired.*

*Note: I rolled mine by hand and had trouble getting it thin enough, it’s very labor intensive to do by hand but can still work.

Spinach, Mushroom & Mustard Sauce

Bring a pot of salted water to the boil. Cook the pasta, fresh will take less time to cook than dried so be careful to not overcook.

Lightly saute 2 minced cloves of garlic in 1 tbsp olive oil until fragrant. Add 2 – 3 cups of roughly torn brown mushrooms and 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper and saute together for a few minutes until the mushrooms begin to brown. Add 2 cups of spinach to the mushroom-garlic mixture and lower the heat.

In a small bowl, mix 1/2 cup creme fraiche and 1tbsp whole grain dijon mustard. Add the sauce to the saute pan and mix everything together.

Turn off the heat and add the cooked, drained pasta to the mixture. Stir so that the sauce coats the pasta and serve with freshly grated Parmesan.

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