We went foraging on Montjuïc recently and had more greens than we needed. I've been meaning to try extracting chlorophyll to make green pasta again, and this was a great opportunity. After extracting, I had the left over vegetable pulp and used it to make a spanakopita-like stuffing for the pasta. It turned out really well, and I'd do it again. I'm putting all the techniques here because I managed to nail the proportions of filling to pasta.
This makes enough for dinner for two, with an extra batch of pasta, and some left over vegetable pulp. Measurements are flexible.
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| Chlorophyll pasta filled with greens, with an anchovy butter sauce |
Extract Chlorophyll
I've been able to greatly simplify the Chlorophyll extraction based on the French Laundry technique we used in 2004: you don't have to shock it and wait two days for the straining; you can do it at the moment.
I got 28.5 g Chlorophyll from my greens, a 12% yield, which is within the range I got from the French Laundry technique, but it all depends on what greens you have. We had plantain leaf, wild chard, dandelion leaves, goosefoot, and probably some others -- each has a different amount of Chlorophyll.
235 g Wild Greens
500 ml Water
Chop the Wild Greens and add to a blender with the Water.
Whiz thoroughly for a couple minutes -- I don't think you can over-blend this.
Strain through a fine strainer and squeeze all the green liquid into a pot;
save the vegetable pulp for the filling.
Bring the green water to about 70C / 160F while stirring: you'll see the Chlorophyll start to precipitate out of the solution and flocculate into clumps.
Stir any Chlorophyll that's stuck to the bottom of the pot into the water.
Let it hang out a while, stirring occasionally to get as much Chlorophyll to precipitate as possible.
Strain through a very fine mesh filter: I used a reusable plastic mesh coffee filter, but a paper filter works well too.
Keep the Chlorophyll that's trapped in the filter.
Make the Pasta Dough
Our usual combination is 1 Egg to 100 g Flour for two people, half the typical Italian amount but it's enough for us. You'll need to adjust depending on the size of your Eggs and how wet your Chlorophyll is. I use a food processor but you can use a bowl and your muscles. We always make a double batch, and freeze half the finished dough for later.
Half of the below makes enough for for the two of us us when filled and sauced.
100 g Flour
100 g Semolina Flour
Salt
28.5 g Chlorophyll, from above
2 large Eggs
Combine the dry ingredients in a food processor and whiz briefly to combine.
Add the Chlorophyll and Eggs, and whiz on low speed.
The dough should come together into a collection of large crumbs;
Helen Rennie's YouTube video shows this well.
If it coalesces into a tight ball, it's a too wet, so add some Flour and whiz again;
if it remains powdery, add some Water and whiz some more.
Scoop the crumbly dough out onto a counter and knead into a tight ball:
it shouldn't be too sticky nor too stiff.
Cover in plastic and refrigerate until it's time to roll and stuff; freeze any extra.
Assemble the Filling
I was thinking of spanakopita: spinach, feta, and egg; a bit of lemon wouldn't have been out of place. You can use whatever you like.
This was just the right amount for our two-person, half recipe of dough from above.
1 large Egg
100 g Wild Greens Pulp, from above
100 g Feta Cheese
Nutmeg
Salt
Pepper
Whip the Egg so it's pretty uniform, and add the rest of the ingredients.
Whiz in the food processor you used above (no need to clean it) or combine well with a fork.
It shouldn't be soggy, nor dry and crumbly.
Roll and Fill the Pasta
I've been using an Atlas manual pasta roller for decades and have a feel for the dough, how much to fold to get the width right, etc. For stuffed pasta, the sheets need to be pretty thin, so you probably can't use a wine bottle like you can for strands. The Pasta Grannies make it look easy, but if you can roll thinly with a rolling pin, you're a better pasta maker than I will ever will be.
Cut the Dough in to 4 pieces and keep the ones you're not working with covered in the plastic film so they don't dry out.
Feed the dough through the widest setting (#0) to flatten, fold into thirds, and re-feed in the perpendicular direction. Repeat this a few times to laminate the dough. It should be almost as wide as the roller, but will widen as you thin it next.
Dust both sides of the flattened dough with Flour.
Reduce the width of the rollers to the next setting (#1) and feed the dough through once.
Reduce again, and repeat.
Repeat until you're at the thinnest setting for stuffed pasta (#9 on my machine).
Unlike for strands, don't let the Pasta wait and dry out at all: stuff immediately so it adheres to itself without cracking.
I decided to make Agnolotti, which is like Ravioli with an extra flap. I suggest watching this YouTube Short, it's quite clear. Agnolotti filled with a soft filling is easy to pinch and seal; my filling is more stiff, which prevents sealing, so I dolloped small dots over the length. Instead of sealing the long edge, I found I could press out more air by first sealing between each dollop, then seal the long edge. Then cut, and seal each edge again to be sure.
Boil, Sauce, and Serve
Boil the filled Pasta in salted water until the dough is tender but still a little toothsome, about 5 minutes for my batch.
Sauce as you like: Irene made a simple but lusty anchovy and butter sauce which went well.
We used a strainer to transfer the cooked Pasta with a bit of its starchy water to the Sauce. Gently fold into the Sauce to coat.
Serve.
This stood up well to a full-bodied red wine.
