Creamy Eggless Spinach Pasta

For the Pasta Dough

• In a mixing bowl, add semolina, whole wheat flour, salt to taste, and olive oil.
• Mix it using a stand mixer or using your fingertips until you get a breadcrumb-like texture. Add little water and knead to make a semi-hard dough.
• Cover the dough with a clean kitchen cloth or keep it in a zip-lock plastic bag and let rest for at least 30-40 minutes.
• Meantime, prepare the sauce.

For the Sauce

• Heat a large sauté pan, add butter to melt, and then add mustard oil.
• Add the cumin seeds & dried red chillies, wait to hear the crackle.
• Add the chopped onions, and sauté for 5 minutes until the onion is translucent.
• Then add garlic, ginger, and green chillies.
• Cook for another 2 to 3 minutes until fragrant (make sure don’t burn it).
• Add the blanched spinach and sauté for 3 minutes.
• Now add the cream, and salt to taste. Simmer for about 3 minutes until thickened.
• Put this mixture in a blender jar and blend until smooth with a sauce-like consistency.

How to make Pasta

• Place the dough on a flat surface. Then roll out the dough to make thin sheets about 3 mm thick sheets with either a pasta maker or rolling pin. Make sure, it should be transparent enough. Cut the sheet into 4 cm (about 1-1/2 inch) strips and then cut into squares.
• Place one square of pasta dough on a garganelli board.
• Start rolling the sheet with mini rolling pin with one corner toward you to the other to make the ridged texture. Then roll the dough around the mini rolling pin and roll it back toward you. In the end, give a little pressure to seal it. You can use a much thinner round chopstick or a round pencil for a more ideal size as well.
• Remove the garganelli from the rolling pin (or chopstick) and put it on a baking sheet covered with a dry towel to dry slightly for about 30 minutes. Similarly, prepare the pasta.
• Add the pasta to salted boiling water and cook for 2-3 minutes or 30 seconds to 1 minute. Stir to ensure it doesn’t clump (fresh pasta will cook much faster than dried pasta!)
• Once cooked as per your liking, transfer the pasta from the water. Make sure to save at least 1 cup of the pasta remaining water.
• Use the sauce as desired to the drained pasta and stir to coat well adding a little pasta water if needed to loosen the sauce and also add grated parmesan cheese to the hot pasta.
• Enjoy