Homemade Fresh Pasta. Beet Linguine (VIDEO)

It’s so much fun to make your own pasta, but to make it PINK is even better! There is nothing like fresh homemade pasta. You will never look at a pasta bag at the grocery store the same again. This recipe is simple, and the fresh pasta beet linguini has a perfect consistency of chewiness and is incredibly delicious.

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This homemade fresh pasta beet linguine is delicious with crumbled soft goat cheese, toasted walnuts, and parmesan. It is also delicious with a simple creamy sauce of your choice.

Here is our family's favorite creamy sauce, which for years has been so beloved that my husband and our friends started calling it "Inna's creamy sauce".

If you like, you can substitute the red beets with carrots for an orange color, spinach for a green color, or any other vegetable! Be creative and fun in your kitchen, remember cooking is an art and you are the artist!

HOMEMADE PASTA: IS IT REALLY WORTH IT?

If initially you are just thinking about quality being the incentive to make homemade pasta, I will have to tell you that it has quite a bit of competition. There are plenty of good pastas to be purchased in every health store, farmers market and even high-end restaurants will offer you the best of the best. But please, hear me out as to why I choose to make homemade pasta.

Doing the right thing and eating well starts with frugality and slowing down. It’s important to take “intense” out of our daily routines and to carve out some time for the good stuff. Making fresh pasta might be that very first step. The slow movements and skill needed for making fresh pasta, or baking our own bread, are the basic elements of a better, healthier, and more conscious lifestyle. In creating these food products yourself, you are more careful about what is going into your body.

Another reason to make your own is frugality. Just like making your own farmers cheese, foraging mushrooms, growing vegetables in your own garden, fermenting, or canning, making your own pasta saves you pennies. Fresh pasta can be made in bulk and frozen. Even lasagna, which if assembled and layered with sauce and cheese, can be popped into the freezer -- if properly stored in an airtight container -- and last about three months!

A third reason is "cooking therapy"! Working with dough relaxes me and I'm so happy to be covered in flour, just like a kid. Lol. Speaking of which I adore seeing my babies participate in the process too, because it increases their belief that food can be made and not always purchased.

Making your own fresh pasta really requires only a few hours. I’ve timed my last fettuccine session, and from the moment of flour preparation to cooking, I only invested 2.5 hours, and that’s including creating a nice sauce. Think of all the things you could easily give up in exchange for two and a half hours dedicated to showing how much you love your family and yourself, while putting together something healthy and insanely tasty:

Leave the laundry unfolded; you can do it tomorrow, right?

Renounce going to a movie and eating popcorn and candy for one night a week.

Abstain from driving to the mall and eating at Olive Garden.

Skip the gym once, and oh boy this is a hard one, right?

Take advantage of a rainy Sunday by putting together a different afternoon activity with the kids/significant other.

Allow this ritual to become a form of therapy. It takes practice, but is so incredibly rewarding. Take it from me a workaholic mess.

TOOLS YOU MAY NEED TO MAKE FRESH PASTA:

• Pasta maker: I have used this Atlas150 for a long time and just love it. However, if you don’t own one and don’t want to invest in one, you can absolutely make this recipe with just a knife.

• Wooden rolling pin: instead of feeding the dough through the pasta machine, you will just fold and roll your dough many times. It is more work but this is what people did before the invention of pasta makers!

• Drying rack: I can't say it's a must but it definitely makes the job easier, especially when you want to dry pasta for a later use, or even the freezing process is easier after pasta has had time to dry out but not all the way.

• Dough cutter -or chef's knife, or really anything that you can use to cut dough.

• Wooden board - or just on a granite corner top is fine too.

• Food processor - sometimes I use it, check out this recipe, but sometimes it's just nice create a GREAT mess right on the counter top like I did this time.

WHAT DO I NEED TO MAKE BEET LINGUINE?

Flour - two kinds of flour are needed: semolina and 00 flour. "Doppio zero" refers to the grind of the flour - 00 is powder fine and typically has a slightly lower gluten content that makes it perfect for pasta. (It can also be used in pizza dough, but I think it's less critical there.) If you don't have it, don't stress because you can use regular unbleached all-purpose flour.

Eggs - fresh, the best you can find, right? Don't get me wrong, an egg is egg, which is a protein that holds flour together in the shape that you desire and even though Walmart eggs will do the job, I highly recommend and also ask that you do yourself a favor and purchase eggs with bright yolks; the brighter the better. Conventional eggs are not high in nutrients.

Olive oil - Extra Virgin Olive Oil, I love this brand and have for more than 10 years. Make sure whatever you buy is made and bottled in the US.

Salt - I like pink or Celtic salt, which are high in mineral salts but this is optional. Sometimes I skip it.

Beet juice or beet pure - in the video I used juice, but beet puree is great too. Learning how to cook beets properly for maximum color and preserve their nutrients, check out this blog.

Let's do it...

Prep time: 5 minutes

Making time: 20 minutes

Resting time: 20 minutes

Total time: 45 minutes

Author: Inna of innichkachef.com

Serves: 10 portions

Ingredients for Beet Linguini

375 grams of 00 flour "Doppio zero" or all-purpose flour

125 grams semolina flour

240 grams eggs (about 4-5 eggs)

10 grams beet juice or beet pure

10 grams extra virgin olive oil

Directions for beet linguine:

• First, make a nest with the flour on a clean work surface like a wooden cutting board. Add the remaining ingredients to the center and use a fork to gently break up the eggs. Try to keep the flour walls intact as best as you can! While making the video, the moment I added eggs, oil, and beet juice to the center, my baby girl came and grabbed my legs, and with one extra movement, I created a great mess, the eggs almost escaped from the cutting board. Luckily, I recovered, but it wasn't easy.

• Next, use your hands to gently mix in the flour. Continue working the dough to bring it together into a shaggy ball. Use your dough cutter as a scraper to push all flour to the center.

• Then, knead! At the beginning, the dough should feel pretty dry, but stick with it! It might not feel like it’s going to come together, but after 5-8 minutes of kneading, it should become cohesive and smooth. If your dough feels very moist and perfect to roll, it means you need to add more flour. Because after the dough relaxes, the gluten structure develops and you will notice it's too wet, and you won't be able to roll. Better to have a little additional flour and be on the dryer side. On other hand, if the dough still seems too dry, sprinkle your fingers with water and continue kneading to incorporate it into the dough.

• When the dough comes together, shape it into a ball and wrap it in plastic wrap. Let the dough rest at room temperature for 20-30 minutes. This step is a must.

• After the dough rests, slice it into 4 pieces.

• Use a rolling pin or your hands to gently flatten one dough piece into an oval disk.

• Then, run it through the widest setting of your pasta maker. For the first run, place the pasta maker on the lowest seting and run the dough thru 2 times on that setting before proceeding to the next step.

• Next, fold the dough… if you want to. This step is somewhat optional, but it will make your final pasta sheet more rectangular, which will yield more long strands of pasta, plus it’s super simple! Just lay the dough flat and fold both short ends to meet in the center, especially if you like a very uniform shape.

• Once you’ve folded the dough, roll it out to your desired thickness. I chose #5 this time. I run it through the pasta roller one time on level 2, one time on level 3, and one time each on levels 4, and 5. The speeding up of this step will tear your pasta apart and you will end up with a mess instead of beautiful pasta.

• Repeat these steps with the remaining dough pieces. Each time you finish with a piece of dough, lay one half of it on a lightly floured baking sheet. Sprinkle the dough with semolina flour, and fold the other half on top. Sprinkle the top with semolina flour, too!

• Run the pasta sheets through your desired pasta cutter attachment. Cook the noodles in a pot of boiling salted water for 1-2 minute, and enjoy! Or dry on a drying rack, or just on a cutting board with the pasta shaped like a bird nest. Freeze for longer storage.

NOTE:

Fresh pasta dough can be made a day ahead of time, and fresh pasta can be stored in the fridge for one day in a container with a tightly covered lid. I don't recommend storing any longer in the fridge because the pasta will oxidize and turn into an unpleasant grey color.

ENJOY!