It’s no secret that a big part of the reason Erica and I started the Tasteful Supper Club was to have an excuse to try out new, sometimes experimental recipes and cooking techniques. We’ve even had a couple of near disasters, but everything has ended up tasting good. But making pink pasta dyed with beet juice seemed too ripe for disaster to subject any paying guests to it.
I had spotted this blog post a few years ago and have had it on my radar of things to make since then. My step-mom gave me a pasta roller a few years ago for Christmas. I haven’t ever completely ruined a batch of pasta, but every batch is a little different and I still feel a bit like each one is an experiment.
Being single on Valentine’s day, I thought I’d treat myself to a fancy dinner and try cooking something new. What better excuse to make pink pasta? I was fully planning for this meal to be a solo affair, but over the past week, I gradually invited a small assortment single friends. So, people ended up being privy to my food experiment after all.
I started out with about eight medium-small beets. I don’t have a proper juicer, so I shredded them as small as possible in my food processor. They didn’t seem to be giving off a whole lot of liquid, so I added some water. In the future, I might actually add more water. I wasn’t looking to actually flavor the pasta, only color it. The finely shredded beets seem to do a good job of coloring just about everything (hands, countertops, clothing, etc.) and they did a great job of coloring the water as well.
Then I strained the beet pulp and water through a medium-fine mesh sieve.
The juice still seemed a little chunky, so I strained it again through a couple layers of cheesecloth and ended up with a little more than half a cup of pink juice.
Then, following the advice from the original inspiration recipe, I simmered the juice to reduce it by about half. And to make sure it was super smooth, strained it through cheesecloth again.
As I was now expecting 6 people for dinner, I opted to make two batches of pasta. And, still afraid that the pink pasta would be a disaster, I opted to make one regular batch along with the pink one. I used my now standard pasta recipe for the plain batch:
1 C all purpose flour
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 tsp salt
swig of olive oil
Combine flour and salt in a food processor. While it’s running, slowly pour in eggs and olive oil. After it all comes together in the food processor, knead the dough for a few minutes then wrap it in plastic wrap and let rest for about a half an hour.
For the pink batch, I substituted the beet juice for one of the eggs. The dough seemed a bit wet, so I kneaded in a bit more flour after removing it from the food processor. Rolling the dough was a blast, of course. I’ve mostly only made ravioli, so I initially overlooked the necessity of flouring the thin dough liberally before cutting it. The first few tries stuck together quite a bit, but eventually I mastered it.
I cooked the pasta for just a minute and then made a simple sauce of butter, parmesan, reserved pasta cooking water, salt and pepper. The noodles didn’t taste like beets but looked beautiful. So mission accomplished!
To keep up with the red and pink valentines theme, we started the meal with roasted red peppers and fresh mozzarella. We enjoyed a side of beet greens sauteed with butter, garlic and lemon juice. There was plenty of red and white wine and champagne flowing. And we topped it off with INSANELY DELICIOUS chocolate souffle cupcakes topped with mint chocolate whipped cream. Add in some olympic figure skating and it ended up being one of my favorite valentines days!
