Creamy Spinach Pesto Pasta
Three years ago, my Italian bestie (Diego) gifted a beautiful pasta machine to me. It is my favorite little kitchen gadget. But lately, I haven’t been using it all that much. The last time I broke out this bad boy was when I made spinach and ricotta ravioli from scratch last year. My trip to Europe inspired me to return to my kitchen and cook more. With March being the month of “all things green,” I decided to try making fresh spinach pasta from scratch. It would solve my two dilemmas: my decline in pasta machine usage and my need to honor my almsgiving commitment. I read a few food blogs with different methods to make spinach pasta and adapted them to write my recipe for you all. Let me tell you. Making spinach pasta is ridiculously easy. Even easier than regular pasta.
All you will need to make this spinach pasta is a blender or strong food processor. I used my ninja kitchen blender, and it did the trick. I love that there is very little mess involved. No well of flour needs to be made. You just press a button and watch the dough magically come together. It’s glorious.
This recipe is also perfect to make for those of you who are vegetarian or vegan. There are no animal products in this recipe. Woohoo! I’m working on creating and publishing more recipes on this blog that are inclusive for my readers who do have dietary restrictions 🙂 Unfortunately, this recipe is not gluten-free. But you could swap out the flour with another flour substitute. And for those of you with no dietary restrictions, you’ll enjoy this recipe sans the animal products. This pasta is filling, delicious, and healthy. What more could you ask for?
What if I don’t have a pasta machine?
No worries. Making pasta from scratch without a pasta machine is definitely possible. You’ll just need to use the arms that God gave you and put a little more work in 🙂 Roll out the dough with a rolling pin and add flour as you go along. Once you get to the desired thickness, fold the sheet of dough and cut into 1/2 inch wide strips so that you get long fettucine noodles!
How can I store my pasta dough if I don’t want to cook it right away?
You can put your pasta dough in the freezer (up to 2 months) or the fridge (up to 3 days). However, I would highly recommend cooking your pasta as soon as possible to ensure maximum freshness.
My dough is tough to knead and feels very dry. What should I do?
Keep working the gluten in the dough and knead it for a while. Since the binding agent is just spinach, it might be a little tough to work with at the start. But have faith! If you’ve been working on the dough for a while and it is still too dry, I would add just a little bit of water to help you move along. If you follow the instructions and measure everything correctly, the dough should come together very easily.
Why does the recipe call for baby spinach over mature spinach?
Mature spinach often has a long stalk to it. If you only have mature spinach on hand, remove the long stalks from the spinach with a paring knife before blending. Mature spinach is harder to blend if kept whole. Baby spinach requires no stalk removal. You can simply toss it in and blend away!
Why does my spinach have to be dry?
The binding agent for this pasta dough is spinach alone. If your spinach is not dry, you will be adding additional water to the dough. This will result in a dough that is tackier and more difficult to work with. I would recommend purchasing a bag/box of triple washed baby spinach, so that you do not have to go to the hassle of washing and drying your spinach for the recipe.
Alright. Now that I answered some common questions. Let’s hop into this recipe!
Creamy Spinach Pesto Pasta
Equipment
- Kitchen Blender or Food Processor
- Pasta Machine
Ingredients
Spinach Pasta Dough
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- all-purpose flour dusting
- 2 cups baby spinach washed, dried, and packed
Pesto Pasta
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1/4 cup homemade pesto
- 1 avocado mashed
- 1 carton tomato medley halved
Instructions
Spinach Pasta Dough
- Place the 1 cup of flour into the blender.
- Pack the baby spinach into the measuring cup and put it into the blender.
- Pulse the blender until it becomes crumbly. Stop the food processor and make sure to get the corners of the blender before pulsing again.
- Check the texture of the dough by pressing it with your fingers. If it feels soft and sticks together, it's time to tip the dough onto your work surface.
- Knead the dough for about 10 minutes until it becomes smooth and elastic.
- Cover the dough and let it rest in the fridge for 30 minutes. This will allow the gluten to relax so that it will become easier to work with.
- After it finishes resting, cut the dough in half. Dust the dough with flour liberally to prevent the dough from sticking to your pasta machine.
- Squash the dough and put it through the widest setting of your pasta machine four times. Dust the dough with flour liberally each time you pass it through.
- Pass the dough 1 setting higher each time until you reach desired thickness. I tend to stop at setting 4. Then, cut the pasta to desired pasta shape.
Pesto Pasta
- Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Add the fresh spinach pasta.
- Allow the fresh spinach pasta to cook for roughly 2 minutes or until al dente. Drain the pasta.
- In a small bowl, mash the avocado with a fork. Add the pesto to the mashed avocado and stir to combine. Set aside.
- Heat up the olive oil in a saucepan. Add the minced garlic into the pan and fry until golden.
- Add the drained spinach pasta into the pan and quickly toss. Cook the pasta in the pan for roughly 5 minutes.
- Remove the pan from the heat. Add the avocado pesto mixture to the pasta.
- Stir until the pasta is coated with the avocado pesto mixture. Add the halved tomato and mix to combine.
Can you tell that I’m trying to level up my food photography game? 😉 It’s been a HOT minute since I’ve posted anything food related, so I’m glad that I’ve found the motivation to bring it back! I quite literally had to lay down on the floor to get a few of these shots, so I hope you like the pictures as much as I do. I’m very much obsessed with this photo, recipe, and pasta. So if you happen to give it a try, let me know!
Interested in more easy and delicious recipes to make from home? Check out my recipes here. Subscribe to my newsletter for regular updates whenever I add a new recipe.
Emily
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