How to Flavor Fresh Pasta
Adding additional ingredients to your homemade pasta dough brings eye-catching color and subtle flavor to your finished fresh pasta.
Before you start, you should know that fresh semolina and even egg pasta doughs are easy to flavor with the ingredients below. While you can flavor whole-wheat pasta dough, the flavor will be more subtle and the nuttiness of the whole-wheat flour will remain prominent.
Follow these steps for flavoring your whole-wheat or semolina dough.
Herb Pasta
Whisk 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley, basil, dill, chives, and/or tarragon into the liquid ingredients before adding them to the flour.
Spinach Pasta
For whole wheat dough, reduce the added egg yolks by half or omit the added water. For semolina dough, reduce the water by 2 tablespoons. Process 4 ounces frozen spinach, thawed and thoroughly squeezed dry, with the liquid ingredients in a food processor until finely chopped. If mixing the dough with a food processor, add the flour to the processor and proceed with the recipe.
Tomato Pasta
For whole wheat dough, reduce the added egg yolks by half or omit the added water. For semolina dough, reduce the water by 2 tablespoons. Whisk 2 tablespoons tomato paste into the liquid ingredients before adding them to the flour.
Squid Ink Pasta
For whole wheat dough, reduce the added egg yolks by half or omit the added water. For semolina dough, reduce the water by 2 tablespoons. Whisk 2 tablespoons squid or cuttlefish ink into the liquid ingredients before adding them to the flour.
