Spinach tagliolini with crab, cherry tomatoes, chilli, garlic and lemon
Fancy a challenge? Make your own spinach ribbon pasta, then toss it through fresh crab, chilli and garlic for a super-fresh summertime supper.
Ingredients
For the pasta dough
- 350g/12oz 00 flour
- 25g/1oz fine semolina flour, plus 50g/1¾oz for dusting
- 2 free-range eggs beaten with 4 free-range egg yolks
- 100g/3½oz baby spinach, cooked and squeezed out
For the tagliolini with crab
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 3 garlic cloves, sliced
- 1 red chilli, chopped
- 1 handful datterini tomatoes
- 250g/9oz picked white crab meat
To garnish
Method
To make the pasta dough, combine both flours in a large bowl, then add the beaten eggs and 2 tbsp water. Combine with a fork then start to form a dough. Put the pasta dough mix and spinach in a food processor and pulse until the spinach and dough is evenly combined.
Once the dough is smooth, wrap it in cling film and chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.
Divide the dough into four equal pieces and place one piece on a work surface dusted with semolina. Make sure the other dough pieces are covered with a damp tea towel to prevent them from drying out. Roll the dough into a rectangle that is about 5mm/¼in thick.
Feed the pasta through a pasta machine on the widest setting. Fold and feed through again. Repeat the process four or five times.
Pass the dough through the pasta machine rollers, decreasing the setting grade by grade to the desired setting (either the penultimate or final setting, depending on your preference). If the sheet of pasta becomes too long to handle easily, cut it in half. Ideally, by the end you should be able to see your fingers through the pasta. (You can roll pasta by hand with a rolling pin, but it will certainly give you a workout!)
Cut the pasta dough into thin long strips using a sharp knife. Or simply feed the pasta sheets through one of the cutting attachments on the machine.
For the tagliolini with crab, pour the olive oil into a frying pan over a medium heat. Add the garlic and chilli, then fry until lightly golden. Add the tomatoes and cook for 1 minute, then stir in the crab meat.
Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil, add the pasta and cook for 1–2 minutes. Strain and reserve a little of the cooking water.
Toss the cooked pasta into the tomatoes and crab with a splash of the pasta cooking water.
To serve, garnish with basil and lemon zest.