Beetroot pasta
Beetroot Pasta
There’s just something lovely about the hue of colored pastas and beetroot has to be one of the most vibrant vegetables to work with.
I didn’t however go crazy on the quantity I added here, but it gave the lovely soft tint I was after. I paired it a few ways, & one was from a recipe by Nadiya Hussain’s book Time to eat.
It’s an earthy tasting dish that was easy to rustle up, delicious & pretty!
This base pasta doesn’t give a super pronounced flavor of beetroot but the addition of the purée in the sauce certainly does.
Ingredients:
280 g (2 cups) Gusto Pastry & Pasta Flour
2 eggs
1 yolks
1/4 cup beetroot purée (I cook 4 beetroots, saving the excess. See recipe below.)
Water as needed to make dough pliable
Instructions for making fresh pasta here
Wash, peel, chop & boil beetroots. Drain.
Using a food processor or hand blender, purée the cooked beets until smooth. Set aside 1/4 cup for the pasta.
Make my base fresh pasta recipe either by machine or by hand.
Sauce:
(Nadiya Hussain recipe, Book: Time to eat, Penguin)
500 g pasta or 1 full recipe of Gluten free pasta
600 g cooked beetroot, drained (Was about 5 small beetroots)
100 ml olive oil
1 tsp fine sea salt
4 cloves garlic (I used less.)
1 large red chili, deseeded if you don’t want it too spicy
200 g feta cheese (Can use plant-based if desired, I love Violife Feta)
20 g fresh dill, finely chopped
1 tbsp lemon juice
Extra virgin olive oil, For drizzling
Essential kit
You will need: a blender, smoothie maker or processor.
Directions:
Cook the pasta.
Meanwhile make the sauce. Put the beetroot into a blender and add the olive oil, salt, garlic and chilli. Blend to a smooth paste.
Put half the sauce into a small ziplock freezer bag, seal and freeze. Now you have another batch of the sauce ready for another meal.
Crumble the feta cheese and place in a bowl. Chop the dill and add to the cheese, then drizzle over the lemon juice and mix.
Once the pasta is cooked to your liking , drain and put back into the pan. Pour in all that beautiful beetroot sauce and mix through.
Tip it out on to a serving dish and sprinkle over all the feta and dill mix. Drizzle with a little extra oil for good measure before serving.
The frozen sauce will keep for up to 6 months. Store in a labelled ziplock bag.