homemade spinach egg pasta noodles (green pasta)

Directions

1. Bring large pot of water to boil; add a pinch of salt. When water reaches a boil; add in the spinach leaves and blanch for no more than 45 seconds.
2. Quickly remove the spinach leaves with a slotted spoon and place in an ice bath to cool for 1 to 2 minutes. Drain the spinach of all the water; place the spinach in a dish towel and squeeze it dry. Chop the spinach up finely using a sharp knife, be sure no excess water remains. Place in a bowl and set aside.
3. Set up your table covered with a clean tablecloth and set up your wooden work board and pasta machine.
4. In a small bowl; crack the eggs and add in the chopped reserved spinach and mix gently with a fork until somewhat blended. Slowly pour the egg and spinach mixture into the well in the flour and using your fork begin to circle and slowly blend the flour in the egg mixture until all is almost incorporated.
5. Using your hands, continue to combine the mixture until a soft dough forms and continue to blend well so the eggs, spinach and flour are evenly combined.
6. Form a ball with the finished dough and dust lightly with flour. Place on wooden board under a bowl and let rest for 20 to 30 minutes.
7. Begin rolling at a thick setting; keep rolling at the next thinnest setting until you achieve the thinness you want (on my traditional machine, I start at 7, move to 5 and then do a last roll at 3 (carefully.) Lay the thinly rolled noodles on the clean tablecloth and dust liberally with flour so they do not stick and continue rolling sections of the dough.
8. Once you have finished rolling all the noodles (until the dough runs out.) Dust all the noodles again lightly with flour and let them rest and dry a bit. Note: Remember to dust the pieces of dough lightly with flour and dust the rollers a bit too; if the dough is too sticky, work some more flour into it to smooth it out before rolling.
9. Note: Making pasta can take a bit of practice, but once you get the feel it is so simple to make the best tasting pasta you have ever had.
10. Tip: I use a traditional metal pasta machine (hand crank style) but you can also use the more modern pasta machines like the pasta attachment for Kitchen Aid mixers. Always test your roller settings with one piece of dough to determine the thickness and how often you need to roll it through before cutting into final shapes.