Beetroot Pasta Dough & Heart Shaped Ravioli

Beetroot Pasta Dough & Heart-Shaped Ravioli

Level up your pasta dough this Valentine’s Day with pink pasta! Coloring your homemade pasta dough is actually really easy, and you don’t need to use food coloring. If you don’t like beets, that’s totally ok! You can’t taste the beetroot in the pasta because there’s not enough to overpower the egg and flour. And that goes for any vegetable you use to color your pasta, like spinach, for example. You can boil beets in a pot of water for about an hour or until they are soft enough to juice. Or, you can buy beet juice ready-made and skip that whole step! For more of my pasta-making tips, check out this pasta dough 101 post.

Pink Beet Root Pasta Dough

Makes: 2 servings

Ingredients:

• 1 cup OO flour
• 1 large egg
• 2 tbsp pure beet juice

Instructions:

1. In a small bowl, whisk the egg. Add the beet juice and mix until combined.
2. Add the flour to a large shallow bowl. Create a well in the middle and add the wet ingredients to the well. Start incorporating them into the flour with a fork or your fingers. You can continue bringing the dough together in the bowl or pour it out onto a clean work surface. It will take about a minute to get the dough to really come together. If some flour won’t incorporate, toss it.
3. Knead the shaggy dough for 6-8 minutes until it becomes soft and smooth. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and rest at room temperature for at least an hour or in the refrigerator for one night if you aren’t using it right away. Just make sure you bring it to room temperature when you are ready to use it.
4. Work with the dough in two parts. Cut the dough into two equal sections using a bench knife and wrap the reserved piece of dough back in the plastic wrap to keep it from drying out.
5. With your hands, press the working dough into the rough shape of a rectangle and feed it through your pasta rolling machine at the thickest level. Fold the rolled dough over onto itself and feed it through the roller again. You can do this a few more times if the dough needs a little extra strengthening or shaping.
6. Change the thickness of the roller to the next thinnest option and continue feeding your pasta dough through the machine at a thinner and thinner setting until you reach the thinnest possible setting. The dough will be long and nearly paper-thin.
7. Use the backs of your hands to transport the dough to a floured work surface. Cut your pasta shapes and repeat for the other portion of dough.
8. Leave the cut pasta on the counter to dry before cooking so that it won’t stick together in the pot. Drying time will depend on the shape and size of the pasta. A minimum of 30 minutes for basic small shapes, up to a few hours for larger sheets and ravioli. If you are storing the pasta, 24 hours is best.
9. When you are ready to cook, bring a pot of well-salted water to a boil, reduce the heat, and add your pasta in batches so as not to overcrowd the pot. Fresh pasta can cook quickly in just a few minutes, so keep an eye on it and test the chew frequently. If you are making ravioli, wait for the ravioli to start floating at the top and cook for an additional few minutes.

Pastabilities!

I filled these heart-shaped ravioli with a mix of Ricotta and grated Parmesan cheese before serving them in a simple brown butter and sage sauce.

If you want to do something other than ravioli for Valentine’s Day, check out this heart-shaped sheet of dough. I combined two balls of dough, one plain pasta dough (substitute the beet root juice for water) and one beet root juice pasta dough. I made pappardelle noodles by simply folding the dough over on itself a few times and then cutting it into thick strips. But I think this would make an awesome lasagna!