We had some excess rucola lying around in the fridge and we simply didn’t want to put it to waste. Food waste is something we take seriously. Not just because of the cost of things, because basically a bunch of local rucola doesn’t really cost much. But when you take into consideration underdeveloped places around the world where hunger still exists, and the impact of agriculture on global warming, no food should go in vain. It is simply unacceptable.
A little bit about food waste
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, an estimated 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted globally each year, one third of all food produced for human consumption. Yes! Amazingly one third goes to waste!
If you are interested in finding out more about the state of food and agriculture in the world, here is the FAO’s lateset global report. Makes some interesting reading on the endeavours of maintaining a sustainable and fare food supply chain.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United NationsDownload
One third of all food produced for human consumption is either lost or wasted.
Food and Agriculture Organization
Back to our recipe
We are a big fan of fresh pasta. And a much bigger fan of green pasta. We don’t know why, but it looks so much more interesting and appetizing. You can use spinach or basil to make green pasta dough. Since we had this bunch of local rucola, we decided to go for it.
Another thing is looking after vegan customers at our restaurant. We completely understand that we need to ensure there are sufficient options on our menu appealing for vegans. The pasta section can be challenging because mainly fresh pasta is egg-based. Therefore with this recipe we succeeded in making something interesting for everyone, but even more we put a smile on those vegan patrons once they open our menu.
The level of hydration is the key in ensuring your dough is not too dry, but also not too wet.
The trick of doing an egg-free pasta is striking a balance between strengthening the gluten structure due to the lack of eggs as a binding agent, and the level of hydration to ensure the dough is not too dry but also not too wet.
This is why making fresh pasta can be an exercise of trial and error. The touch and feel of the dough is essential in realising when you have achieved the right balance between dry and wet ingredients. You can’t get this in a cookbook. It only comes with experience. This is why you should go for it… again and again.
Egg-Free Green Farfalle
Equipment
- Blender / Liquidiser
- Free-standing mixer with dough hook attachment
- Pasta Machine
- Pizza Cutter
Ingredients
- 300 grams '00' Flour
- 100 grams Semolina
- 1 Handful Rucola
- 2 tbsp Olive Oil (extra virgin)
- 100 ml Water
- 1 Tsp Salt
Instructions
- Blanche the rucola in boiling water for 1 to 2 minutes and immediately transfer to an ice bath. The ice bath helps preserve the bright green colour of the rucola.
- Drain the blanched rucola and liquidise in the blender with the water prepared for the pasta.It is very important to properly dry the blanched rucola. The more moisture you retain can impact negatively the hydration of the pasta dough.
- In a free standing mixed start mixing the flour, semolina, salt and olive oil.
- Start pouring in the rucola and water mixture.
- Let the dough hook kneed the dough for around 5 to 10 minutes until you have a smooth dough. It is important that the dough is not sticky. If this is the case then you have excess moisture which needs to be compensated with some more flour. This can also be corrected in the following steps when opening the pasta sheets.
- Chill the dough in a fridge for at least 30 minutes to 1 hour.
- Once the dough has chilled use the pasta machine to open into thin pasta sheets. On our pasta machine, we would open the pasta up to the number 7 setting.
- To shape the farfalle all you need to do is use the pizza cutter and cut the pasta sheet in half throughout the length. Then cut at an opposite angle in 2 inch intervals.
- After separating the little rectangles cut in the pasta sheet, just pinch the centre of the longer edges to shape the bow. Important to press firmly the centre so the pasta bow does not lose its shape once you boil it.
- Dust the farfalle with semolina and leave to dry on the table for 10 to 15 minutes.
- You can boil immediately or transfer to a tray with a metal spatula and freeze.
