Watercress and Pea Pasta
Making your own pasta dough isn’t as hard as you might think! If you don’t have a pasta machine, you can use a rolling pin.
Serves 4
Ingredients
For the pasta dough:
• 300g (10.5 oz) plain flour
• 2 tbsp gram flour
• 240ml (8 fl oz) boiling water
For the watercress and pea sauce:
• 85g (3oz) packet watercress
• 200g (7oz) frozen peas
• 2 clove garlic, peeled and crushed
• 50g (1.7 oz) almonds or hazelnuts, toasted
• 4 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 60ml (2 fl oz) olive oil
• 1 lemon, juice only
• 60ml (2 fl oz) water (if necessary)
• Salt and pepper, to taste
To serve:
• Cherry tomatoes (optional)
To serve
1. Begin by making your pasta. In a large bowl mix the plain flour and gram flour together, then add the boiling water and stir to form a dough. Knead the dough until smooth, then roll it out to 1-2mm thick, either with a rolling pin or using a pasta machine.
2. Slice the pasta dough lengthways to make strips. These can be as thick or thin as you wish (we made ours about 1 1.5cm wide).
3. Cook the pasta in boiling, salted water for 2-3 minutes until tender.
4. Meanwhile, place the watercress, peas, garlic, nuts, nutritional yeast, olive oil and lemon juice in a food processor and blend until smooth, to make a pesto. If needed, add the water to help it come together. Then season to taste.
5. Rinse the cooked pasta in boiling water, drain, then immediately stir in the pesto. Serve the pasta topped with a sprinkling of nuts, and garnished with the cherry tomatoes.