This pasta recipe calls for lots of spinach…it is so tasty and pretty to look at. The pasta can served topped with any sauce you and your family like or just with your favorite cheese.

Let me make a confession, this is not my first pasta…I made egg pasta once before I attempted to make this spinach pasta. It was so much fun playing with the dough, passing the dough over and over again through the pasta machine. Cutting it using different settings that I forgot to take pictures…

I want this spinach pasta to be the “star” of this post, therefore, after I cooked I just served with a drizzle of olive oil and lots of shaved pecorino cheese…nothing fancy…

Since I made enough pasta for a big crowd, I froze them into small “nests” and already used most of it with different sauces.

Making pasta seems overwhelming, but in reality it is very simple. I did not buy the pasta attachment for the mixer…I decided to go for a manual one, to me it seems that I have more control over it than the one electrically powered.

Anyway, I am happy that I did get this pasta maker as recently I see many recipes that use pasta maker to roll bread dough…this will be my next experiment…

Ingredients:

• 1 lb fresh spinach leaves
• 200 g bread flour
• 200 g semolina
• Pinch salt
• 2 eggs

Method:

Steam the spinach leaves for about 3 minutes, the leaves should still be bright green and softened. Let cool slightly. Squeeze out the liquid as much as you can. Puree spinach in a food processor.

Add the flours and salt and mix until well combined. Add the eggs in the food processor until the dough comes together.

Transfer dough to a well-floured surface. Knead until smooth and elastic, 5 to 10 minutes, adding little flour if dough is still too sticky. Cover the dough with plastic film and let it rest for 1 to 2 hours.

Cut dough into 4 pieces. Work with one piece at a time, keep the other pieces covered. Flatten the dough, dust lightly with flour and feed through the pasta machine at its widest setting. Fold lengthwise into thirds and pass through again. Repeat a couple of times.

Set the pasta machine to the thickness you desire and pass the dough a couple of times, dusting flour as needed. Plate the pasta sheet on the counter as you work with the other pieces.

Pass the pasta sheet on the machine using the cutting attachment. Dust with flour as needed to they strands do not stick.
At this point you can cook the pasta or let it dry slightly on the rack, about ½ hour. Or make small nest (portion) and freeze.

Once the little nest of pasta are frozen, store in a airtight container.

When cooking frozen pasta, just place it in a boiling water and proceed as usual.

If you like spinach, you might want to check on Spinach with Ponzu Sauce or Sautee Spinach recipes.

Did you know that spinach is very rich in iron? Moreover, spinach are a very good source of vitamin K, A and C.

Thank you for stopping by Color Your Recipes…have a colorful week!

This is a easy recipe for making ciabatta in the bread machine. The dough for ciabatta is very wet therefore very difficult to handle, that is when the bread machine comes very handy.

I love baking bread…not only the smell of the bread baking in the oven as well as watching the dough changing its form and texture as it rises. This is a very simple recipe for ciabatta. The only difference from the ones that I had baked before is the addition of semolina flour. Semolina flour as you might know is commonly used for making pasta. The addition of semolina flour gives the ciabatta a slightly chewier texture and intense color.

The dough might be harder to manage since it is pretty wet, but all well worth it! The ciabatta turned out great, the crumb was loaded with different sizes of air pockets, and the texture was chewy…delicious.

Ingredients:

Biga Starter

• ½ cup bread flour
• Pinch of yeast
• ¼ cup water at room temperature

Dough

• ¾ cup bread flour
• ¼ cup semolina
• ¼ teaspoon yeast
• 2/3 teaspoon salt
• ½ cup water at room temperature
• All the biga prepared above

Method:

Biga

Mix all the ingredients for the biga in medium bowl. Cover with plastic and leave at room temperature up to 24 hours or overnight

Dough

Place all the ingredients of the dough in the bread machine and the biga. Turn on the bread machine to the kneading setting and let it mix/knead by occasionally scrapping the side of the mixing bucket.

The dough will be moist, after kneading for a while the gluten will form and the dough will not stick so much at the walls of the bucket.

If the dough does not pull away from the wall of the mixing bucket add ½ tablespoon of bread flour.

Once the cycle ends, place the stretchy dough in a very well oiled bowl. Make sure that the bowl is big enough because the dough will triple in size.

Cover with plastic wrap or kitchen towel. Let rise until triple.
Dust flour onto a surface and gently scrape the dough. Dust more flour on top, form a rectangle by pushing the sides of the dough.

Flip the dough on a cookie sheet with a parchment paper lightly dusted with flour. Top the dough with some more flour and cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise until double of its initial size.

An hour or so before baking, put the baking stone into the oven on the lowest rack and preheat to 475 degrees. Place a pan or tray underneath it on the floor of the oven to preheat with the stone.

Slide the parchment paper to the stone and add ice cubes to the empty tray. Close the oven door and let if bake for 5 minutes, then turn the temperature to 450 degrees and bake for another 20 minute, rotating the stone once in between the baking time.

Once done with the baking time, turn off the oven and at the end of cooking turn off the oven and leave the loaf for 5 minutes with the door slightly open.

Let the loaf cool on the rack and serve warm.

If you enjoy this recipe for ciabatta you might want to take a look at No-Knead French Baguette recipe.

Did you know that semolina flour is high in gluten? Pasta made with semolina have a firm texture and hold its shape well. Since semolina is made from durum wheat, people that are sensitive or allergic to gluten should avoid eating semolina

Have a wonderful week and thank you so much for visiting Color Your Recipes!

This is my first time baking bread with semolina…always hear so much about it and finally got the chance to try it out.

If you like crusty crust and soft, and somehow moist and chewy crumb with uneven holes and nutty flavor, you will love this bread. It is so simple…as usual,  I used my Zojirushi bread machine for the sponge and to knead the main dough, but you can easily do it without the machine or use a mixer instead. This recipe was adapted from Bread Making/Bread Experience. I cut the quantity by a third, since I was baking  for only the two of us, but next time making this bread I will sure double it since it is so good.

Before I share the recipe of this delicious bread with you, I am very excited because Simple Recipes has been featured on the Best of the Web hosted by Pocket Change. Please hop to the site to check it out. This site contains lots of reviews and shopping advices for all kind of products, from food items to spas.

Now to the recipe…

Ingredients:

Sponge:

½ cup semolina flour
½ cup bread flour
½ cup water
½ teaspoon yeast
¼ teaspoon sugar

Main Dough:

¾ cup semolina flour
¾ cup + 1 tablespoon bread flour
½ cup water or more
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
all the sponge above

Method:

Sponge:

Place all the ingredients listed on the sponge on the bucket of the bread machine. Set to kneading mode. Once the cycle is over, let the sponge rest for approximately 1 ½ to 2 hours, when the dough is about to collapse.

Main Dough:

Add all of the ingredients listed on the main dough to the bucket with the sponge except for the olive oil, and again set the machine to kneading cycle. Once a soft and even dough has formed, add the olive oil and let the cycle continue until its end, the gluten should have developed.

Remove the dough from the bread machine and place in an oiled bowl and cover with plastic film.

Let the dough ferment for 1 ½ to 2 ½ hours depending on the temperature of the room, until almost triple the initial size. Fold the dough and let it ferment for another 2 hours.

Remove the dough from the bowl on a lightly floured surface. Cover the dough with plastic. Let it rest for about 10 to 20 minutes so the dough relaxes.

Shape the dough by gently stretching until it forms a big rectangle. Fold the ends and flip the dough on a floured parchment paper so the mended side is on the bottom. At this point, I sled the parchment paper on a cookie sheet lined with silicone mat (I thought that if the dough were to raise too much it would stick on the silicone mat instead of the cookie sheet, but there was no need, therefore you may skip the silicone mat) and covered the dough with plastic wrap and placed them in the refrigerator overnight.

The next day, remove the dough from the refrigerator and let them warm up to room temperature for about 1 to ½ hour.

Preheat the oven at 475F by placing a baking stone on the middle rack of the oven and a steam pan underneath with water.

Score the loaf and gently spray the top of the loaf with water.

Slide the bread (on the parchment paper) directly onto the baking stone and pour 1 cup of ice in the steam pan. After 30 seconds, spray the walls of the oven with water. Repeat a couple of times.

After 15 minutes, lower the temperature to 450 F. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes. Rotate the bread 180 degrees for even baking.

Remove the loaf to a wire rack and cool completely before slicing.

I hope you enjoy this simple recipe for bread using semolina.

Did you know that semolina flour is derived from durum wheat? It is high in gluten and mainly used for bread and pasta.

Thank you for stopping by Simple Recipes and have a great week!