Last year I wrote an instructable about Nerikomi Pasta and I have thought about other patterns. For the summertime I created orecchiette pasta that looks like lemon/lime slices. In the Nerikomi Pasta instructable I tried to colour pasta green with spinach and failed. This time I extracted chlorophyll from spinach and gained a wonderful green colour while being able to flavour the pasta like limes.

Ingredients:

Spinach
Flour
Eggs
Lemons
Sweet limes

Tools:

Pasta maker
Silicon kneading mat
Plastic wrap
Blender
Cheesecloth
Fine mesh strainer

Step 1: Extraction of Chlorophyll

After washing the spinach, you need to blend it until everything is just green mud. Then give this into a cheesecloth and press out all liquid into a cooking pot. Heat this liquid to 65°C (150°F). When the liquid flocculates into water and green stuff, remove from heat.

Step 2: Drain

Sift the flocculated mass into a fine mesh strainer and remove excess water. The residue inside your strainer is your chlorophyll. Either store it in the fridge or start making pasta with it.

Step 3: Green Pasta

Like right now, create a flour vulcano on your silicon kneading mat with 100 to 120 grams of flour. Use a spoon, an egg and a teaspoon of chlorophyll to mix everything into a green pasta dough. Add a bit of zest from a green lime if you want to flavour your pasta. Wrap the dough in cling film and store in your fridge.

I decided to make lemon slices with yellow segments inside and a green peel outside to have a more colourful product for my guests. Thence I also made yellow and white dough(no egg but water). To achieve the look of a fresh sliced lemon I added semolina to the yellow dough but that made the dough a bit too dry and it did not change the look after cooking.

Step 4: Resting

Let the doughs rest for at least 30 minutes in your fridge before you continue to work.

Step 5: Segments

To build the segments of the lime, roll the yellow dough with your pasta maker and use a fettuccine cutter or cut the pasta with a big knife into strands of 7mm. Then stack 3 yellow strands upon each other and press one side together into a wedge. Store them on a plate with some flour.

Step 6: Segments 2

Roll a thin sheet of white dough and wrap it around each yellow segment. For the inside you need a small round centrepiece.

Step 7: Rolling Together

You need 7 segments (depending on your dough maybe 6 or 8), 1 centrepiece and another white sheet to roll this into one cylindric piece. Use the stickiness of the white dough or moisten it with a spray bottle to glue the pieces into a half, lay the centrepiece inside and complete the circle. Then roll it all into the white dough. Now you have the yellow segments and white surroundings of a lemon. Lets wrap this in the "peel".

In this picture you can see the white spots inside of the segments, the look I wanted to achieve with semolina. but after cooking the pasta nothing was to see anymore. Prepare a sheet of green dough and wrap it around the segments like you just did with the white dough.

Step 8: Slicing

Roll the combined dough in a dish towel to spread the pressure when holding it with your hand and to prevent any deformation. Use a big knife, do not put any pressure on it. Let the weight of the knife do the work, just move the blade back and forth for the whole length. Make thin slices as if they were coins. Press them into shape with your fingers and store them on a plate with some flour so they don't stick to it.

Step 9: Cooking

When it's time to cook the pasta for your dinner, boil them in enough salted water until they all swim on the surface. Drain and toss them in a frying pan with butter. Garnish with grated cheese and fresh herbs.