What would you make if you were given a challenge with the ingredients red, green and white?  Well, for me, it’s obvious. It has to be Italian.  And, as cliche as it might sound, I could not get a caprese salad off of my mind. Juicy tomatoes, fresh buffalo, mozzarella, basil leaves and olive oil is one of our favorite things to eat. We grow our own tomatoes and basil and we can hardly wait for this season’s harvest.

Every time I thought about the Royal Foodie Joust a food contest  hosted by the Left-Over Queen and the  three ingredients by  Foto Cuisine selected as April’s winners, caprese came to mind. The winners Christie and Peter  were quite original in choosing color as ingredients.

Caprese and pasta aren’t normally put together, but the idea of colored, flavored pasta sounded fun and flavorful, and, it’s clearly something I like to do. I won the Royal Foodie Joust for best photo and best overall in February for this homemade ravioli and I entered again in March with citrus herb pasta, and just recently shared with you a homemade saffron pasta. I enjoy making pasta by hand and trying new ways to experiment with herbs, fruits, vegetables, textures, colors. I know this is a venture I’ve only just begun. 

For this challenge, I needed to make sure I could get a vibrant colored pasta in shades of green and red for an unusual lasagna made caprese style, using basil and fresh mozzarella cheese.

I have never made spinach pasta or sun-dried tomato pasta before. I was looking for color and flavor, and just started guessing. The thing I did right is mix the ingredients with the flour FIRST, before adding the eggs, making sure the ingredients are fully incorporated and kept tasting. I taste everything as I go, but I don’t want to taste anything with raw eggs, so I usually put all my ingredients together and taste before any egg is added.

Handmade, white whole wheat, sun dried tomato and spinach pasta.

This dish is really simple, once the pasta is made. It’s a lasagna with no ricotta cheese, so it tastes much lighter and can easily be used as a first course, or a side dish. The sun dried tomatoes bring a pizza flavor and the spinach pasta was very flavorful. They complimented each other. The next time I might add in some mushrooms, and when my basil is overflowing in the garden, make a basil pasta. The possibilities for flavoring and layering  are endless.

Recipe for Spinach Pasta

1 1/2 cup flour

1 cup fresh spinach leaves

1 t salt

2 eggs

Put flour, salt and spinach in a food processor and pulse until the flour is green and spinach is evenly mixed. Reserve 1/4 cup flour to use as needed.

Once spinach is incorporated, knead for about 4 minutes to make sure everything is incorporated and pasta dough is smooth. Put flour in mound on counter, make a well, and beat in each egg, one at a time. You may need to use more flour. The spinach was the most sticky, so use flour as needed.

Recipe for Sun Dried Tomato Pasta

1 1/2 cup flour

1/4 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes (prepared in oil)

olive oil, if needed

1 t salt

2 eggs

I used sun-dried tomato prepared and packed in olive oil. If you are using sun dried tomatoes not packed in oil, add 1 T olive oil.

Prepare the same way as spinach pasta. The key is mixing the tomatoes with the flour, before adding the eggs.  The sun dried tomato pasta was more dry, so I added in a little olive oil.

Recipe for Basic  Pasta (for detailed instructions see recipe here. )

1 cup flour

1 t salt

2 eggs

Note: I used white whole flour for all three pastas. You can use all purpose flour, or you can use semolina flour.

General Instructions to Make Lasagna Noodles

Rest each pasta for at least 30 minutes, covered with a damp cloth.

Take through pasta machine, one number at a time. My machine goes to 9. For this recipe, I didn’t go past 6, making it a bit thicker than I do for other pasta dishes, to lessen the chance of it breaking.

Roll out into long sections. Allow to dry for 15 minutes before cutting into large squares or long rectangles. Cut, and thoroughly dry.

Optional shapes are shown in the top photo. Cut squares and cut again into diagonals.

You will have more pasta than you need for the following recipe. You can cut the pasta into any shape you desire, store in plastic bag in cool place for future use.

Lasagna Recipe (Serves 6-8)

Homemade pasta squares or rectangles

4  cups grated Buffalo Mozzarella

4 Large Tomatoes cut into medium slices

1/2 cup Parmigiana Reggiano

2 cups fresh basil fresh basil Leaves 

Salt, Pepper for seasoning

Assembly

Layer pasta squares (pre-cooked for just a few minutes) with basil or pesto, tomatoes, both cheeses. I made two layers only, but you could make more.

Bake at 350, until cheese is melted through. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before cutting.

Layer with  tomatoes, mozzarella, fresh basil.

Notes: you can also use a fresh pesto instead of basil leaves.  Feel free to comment, or ask questions about this recipe. If you ask here, others will have the benefit of your question; however, I’ll be happy to answer by email. For those of you who visit frequently and leave nice comments, I really appreciate the feedback and your visit. 

Similar spinach tiger recipes:

Meat Ball Lasagna                                      Homemade Ravioli

Key Words: Italian, Pasta, Vegetarian, Lasagna

Spinach Tiger Entry 46 -  Angela Roberts,  Tri-Color Lasagna alla Caprese

All original content copyright © 2009 Angela Roberts, All Rights Reserved