With this spinach pici pasta recipe you can have fresh, homemade vegan pasta without a pasta maker! Pici is easy to make, egg-free, hand-rolled pasta from Tuscany that will take you back to your Play-Doh days. Here I’ve added spinach to my pici for some colour, flavour and extra iron and served it with sweet roasted Mediterranean vegetables and pesto.
I do love making pasta from scratch. I find the entire process of kneading, rolling and cutting with the pasta machine to be extremely relaxing and calming after a long day. Obviously making your own pasta allows you to get creative with the shapes and flavours. Check out this pink pasta I made a while back.
Hand rolling and cutting pasta, conversely, would seem to be an arduous task. It seems like I can never roll the pasta thin enough as it has a habit of springing back on itself. Luckily I’ve discovered spinach pici pasta – thicker than spaghetti, it doesn’t need to be rolled out so thinly, and is really easy to make by hand.
I discovered pici pasta watching the new season of Jamie Oliver’s Superfoods. He did a spinach pici pasta recipe on the first episode and since I have a short attention span I had to try it right away. I’m not sure if you can argue with Jamie Oliver but I did change several things which I would consider improvements to his recipe.
Firstly, I added semolina flour. I’ve tried making eggless pasta with just regular flour before and it didn’t cook al dente. Also, a commenter on Jamie’s recipe called it claggy (which I think is like pasty or gooey), which is how I would describe the pasta I made without egg or semolina. So a ratio of two to one with white four and semolina worked great.
Secondly, rather than pan fry the veggies, I roasted them. It makes much more sense to just pop them in the oven and leave them to roast while you’re rolling out the pasta. A time saver there. Finally, rather than parmesan as a sauce I used a vegan pesto, which went great with the spinach pici and roasted vegetables.
Vegan pesto is really easy to make – simply replace the parmesan for miso to give it that same umami you expect from pesto. I usually make up a big batch and store it in small ziplock bags in the freezer for whenever I need it.
You’re probably thinking that making spinach pici pasta from scratch is going to take a long time. Sure, it’s a little more effort that opening a bag of dried pasta a tossing it in some water, but you’ll get the satisfaction of making it yourself using fresh ingredients. Once you get the rolling technique down, it actually moves along quite quickly. If you’re making this dish to serve just two, you can easily do it in under an hour! With this spinach pici pasta recipe you can have fresh, homemade vegan pasta without a pasta maker! Pici is easy to make, egg-free, hand-rolled pasta from Tuscany. Here I’ve added spinach to my pici and served it with sweet roasted Mediterranean vegetables and pesto. As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Spinach Pici Pasta
Ingredients
Instructions
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Nutrition Information:
Yield: 2
Amount Per Serving:
Calories: 923Total Fat: 25gSaturated Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 19gSodium: 748mgCarbohydrates: 154gFiber: 16gSugar: 19gProtein: 26g
Trish says
I'd never attempt something like this as I hate working with dough. The only reason I rarely bake my own breads, unless they're knead-free, is because I don't know how to knead well enough for breads to come out like they should, but you make it sound so easy that I'm seriously contemplating making this! And the combo of flavors are right up my alley. One question: in the food processor I just add the spinach and flours? No water initially? Your photos are just lovely!
Melissa says
That's right, no water initially, the spinach has enough to get it to start coming together as a dough. Too bad you hate working with dough, you're not going to enjoy my next recipe then: homemade ramen noodles, lol! I'll be publishing that one in the next couple of days. Tell me what kind of recipes you like and I'll see if I can come up with something for a future post.
Karen White says
I tried Jamie's original recipe tonight and am looking online to discover what I did wrong. The cooked pici pasta seemed rather tough - possibly undercooked - or I wonder if I over processed it. It took a long while to begin to come together and never really formed a dough in the processor but easily came together when I tipped it out an kneaded for a few seconds.
Melissa says
Yes, I was also unsuccessful at forming a dough in the food processor - it's better to knead it by hand for sure. The pasta is thick so it is a bit more of a mouthful than regular pasta but I wouldn't describe it as tough. It's possible it was undercooked. What I didn't like about Jamie's recipe was that he used just all-purpose flour - I don't think ap flour makes good pasta. Did you try with some semolina mixed in?
Karen White says
Thanks for your reply and sorry that I've only just seen it - I've had problems recovering from eye surgery. I didn't use any semolina, maybe I will try that or get some 00 pasta flour and give it another try.
Stephanie says
I made this last night with my 14 year old son. We put in the semolina, flour, and spinach. What an amazement! It turned into dough. The dough was a little damp, so I put in about another ounce of flour. It took me an my son about 45 minutes to roll it into Pici. We were so pleased with the results. Yummmm. I used shitake mushrooms in mine.
Melissa says
Great! So happy you enjoyed it. Shiitake mushrooms are a great addition. Thanks for your feedback!
Karen says
Going to give this a try to coax a 4 year old who detests vegetables but loves pasta to eat some greens. We have Italian pasta flour Mollini Pizzuti Plain Flour Farina Tipo 00 at the local supermarket. Should I still add the semolina flour as well. I see our supermarket stocks an organic semolina flour also. I suppose the bright green colour will still be a deterent to a fussy four year old but we shall give it a try.
Melissa says
I would add the semolina as well, it a harder flour that gives more bite to the pasta which would normally be provided by the egg. Let me know how it goes!
Nichola Grieve says
I love love this recipe! I made it with roast beatroot and asparagus and it was amazing! My partner eats meat so his was on the side of a steak but even he said it was the best pasta I have ever made him. Can I ask, does the dough keep? I made a bit too much so wrapped it up and put it in the fridge??
Melissa says
Yes, I think it should keep well wrapped for a couple of days.
Charlie M says
Hey, love your recipes. Could the first half be prepared in a food chopper as opposed to food processor? My mum made this for me and it was so good! I want to make it too but I don't have a F/P, only a F/C [that I rarely even used to be honest].
Thanks
Patty says
Can I substitute bread flour for the semolina?
Melissa says
I wouldn't do that, it would affect the texture negatively in my opinion.
Diane says
My food processor is old and small. Can I chop my spinach then turn it into my mixer, adding my flours and using the dough hook? Will this give me the proper consistency or will I still need to knead by hand?
Melissa says
That might work. I don't have a mixer, which is why I did it by hand. If you can make regular pasta in your mixer, then this should be fine too.