Homemade Spinach Pasta

Guess what I got?!! A Cuisanart Food Processor and a pasta roller! That can only mean one thing... Homemade pasta and lots of it!!! The pasta was so much fun to make, and tasted amazing. So fresh, plus it cooked in about 2 minutes. To add a little extra veggie to my meal, I decided to make spinach pasta, which was a fantastic idea. It's a beautiful green, with just a hint of veggie flavor. For dinner, I made a red sauce (my all short cuts, easy for winter, the tomatoes in the store are terrible, and don't even try to find fresh herbs, sauce) and meatballs. The for lunch the next day I ate the left over pasta with grilled chicken, goat cheese, spinach, and a little olive oil. Both were excellent. The pasta was so much fun to make I can't wait to use it again, maybe on some ravioli...

The pasta recipe is from Williams-Sonoma. I halved the the recipe, rolled it out to the seventh setting, and cut the pasta with my thinnest slicer blade.

Rolling out the pasta:



Needed the boyfriend's help by the end...



The pasta freshly sliced:



The pasta all cooked and ready to be sauced:



Winter Tomato Sauce:
1 yellow onion
3 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp of olive oil
1/4 cup of red wine
2 tbsp of tomato paste
1 15 oz can of tomato sauce
1/2 tsp of pepper
1/2 tsp of salt
1/2 tsp of red pepper flakes
1 tsp of dried oregano
1 tsp of dried basil

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Dice onion and garlic and add to the pan. Cook until the onions are soft and translucent, stirring frequently. Add wine and tomato paste. Stir together. Add sauce and seasoning to taste. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Allow to sit on low heat for about 20 minutes.

Meatballs:
1 lb of ground beef (your preference of leanness
1/2 small yellow onion
1 egg
1/4 tsp of salt
1/4 cup of bread crumbs
1 tbsp of olive oil

Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with tinfoil and grease it. Dice the onion. Mix the beef, onion, salt and egg in a bowl. Add the bread crumbs a little at a time, mixing. When the mixture looks like it will hold together and isn't runny, it does not need any more bread crumbs, you may not need the whole 1/4 cup. Form the meat into balls and space evenly on the baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil. Bake until the meat is brown and the balls stay together, about 10 minutes. Finish the meat balls my adding them in the simmering sauce and cover.



Happy Eating.