Homemade spelt pasta with green beans, artichoke hearts and capers

I've not had a lot of opportunity to follow my chef dad around the kitchen -- he's elusive that way -- but this time I took notes and got his recipe.

It’s all Kona’s fault. I had been planning on making homemade pasta for a while now, because I really miss raviolis and can’t find any gluten-free ones locally. Somehow, I always had an excuse when it came time to make them.

Then Kona wrote her post about her foray into homemade pasta land, and how easy it was. That’s it! I was determined to try it … and now that’s all I want to do. Like Bob, I think I’m in a cooking rut.

My first homemade pasta adventure came when we invited my parents to diner a couple of weeks ago. Way to experiment on the dinner guests… and put them to work. Keith rolled out the dough and my parents and I uncurled it and laid it out in preparation for the cooking. Then I figured, we’ve already gone this far, so I asked my dad, the family gourmet, to make the sauce.

Oh, just one note here — we used Kona’s homemade pasta recipe, but with the spelt flour we needed four eggs instead of three, and I wholeheartedly agree with Kona that I wouldn’t roll the pasta before cutting next time. It adds an extra step, and the unrolling was labor intensive.

I had in mind what I wanted: something light and lemony and green so the pasta wouldn’t be overwhelmed by the sauce and it would complement the poached steel head trout we made in the Sous Vide. I’ve eaten my dad’s cooking long enough to know that he’d make a sauce that would embarrass many Iron Chef contestants, so after I described the sauce from my imagination, I followed him around the kitchen and took detailed notes.

Homemade Pasta with Green Beans, Artichoke Hearts and Spinach

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Ingredients:

2 tablespoons + 2 tablespoons butter
1 shallot, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 cups green beans, lightly steamed
6 ounces artichoke hearts (I used frozen)
2/3 cup basil, chopped chiffonade style
2 tablespoons capers
2 cups white wine
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 cups baby spinach
your homemade pasta, cooked until it floats

In a large skillet or saute pan, saute the chopped shallot in 2 tablespoons of butter. Add the garlic and cook for one minute, then pour in the white wine and cook until it’s reduced by half. Add artichoke hearts and capers, cook to heat through. Add 2 more tablespoons of butter and the green beans and cook through again. Add spinach and the cooked pasta, cook until the spinach is wilted and season to taste with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Toss in basil just before serving.

If I made this recipe again, I’d probably use more lemon and more spinach, but that’s only because I’m a lemon freak and a green veggie whore. It truly was perfect as-is. Thanks Dad!