If you thought these were some sort of red beans at first, you guessed wrong. It’s actually a vibrant purple pasta that is hand rolled into a rustic shape called Pici. They’re so easy to make, don’t require any specialty equipment like a pasta roller and they’re so fun to eat as well.
Beetroot – You could use any colour beetroot for this recipe but I obviously used regular red beetroots. You could use precooked ones too if you like.
Flour – Just ordinary all purpose flour is perfect for pici pasta. There’s no need for extra fine, high gluten or bread flour, though if you have them, they’ll work fine too.
Salt – Even though you salt the pasta water, I always add a pinch of salt to my pasta dough as well. Of course you don’t have to if you don’t want to, but I prefer it.
Unlike the spinach pici pasta which have a very subtle flavour, this beetroot version has a slight sweetness to them which I love. They still don’t really taste much like beetroot but just slightly.
This is the best part about this pasta recipe.. it’s so simple to make and here’s how to do it!
STEP 1
If you’re not using pre-cooked beetroots, start by wrapping your beetroots in al-foil and pop them in a 180˚C oven for 1 hour. You don’t need to peel them or add any salt or oil. When they’re cooked, leave them to cook then peel the skin off with your hands. It should slip off easily, but you might want to wear gloves as they will turn your hands pink. If you’re using precooked beets, jump straight to step 2.
STEP 2
Add all of your ingredients to a food processor and blend for a couple of minutes until it forms a bright purple and smooth dough. You might need to stop it half way and scrape the sides down but just trust the process. If your dough is a little too dry or wet, read below under Troubleshooting for how to fix it.
STEP 3
Transfer your dough to a bench and give it a quick knead to bring it all together then leave it to rest for 5 minutes to allow the gluten to relax.
STEP 4
Pinch off a small amount (about a tsp worth). With your hands, roll it into a long skinny shape that somewhat resembles a snake bean. Another great thing about pici pasta is that the size and shape really doesn’t matter so don’t worry at all if you can’t get them perfect… Trust me, mine weren’t in the slightest.
STEP 5
Drop you pici pasta into a pot of salted boiling water and boil for about 30 seconds to a minute or until they float to the surface.
STEP 6
You can top them with whatever sauce you like but I just tossed mine through some garlic butter because I didn’t want to hide the pasta.
Any leftovers can be stored in the fridge in an airtight container for a couple of days. I wouldn’t recommend freezing it though as pasta really doesn’t taste nice once it’s been frozen.
Yes you certainly can! You have two options here, you can either pre-prepare the dough and set it in the fridge for up to a day then roll it out when you’re ready. Or you can make and roll the dough and set it aside either on a pasta rack or on a tray lined with baking paper and sprinkled with flour for extra non-stickness. If you opt for laying them on a tray, make sure they are in a single layer, otherwise they will stick together and all the hard work you put into rolling them will be for nothing.
If you dry the pasta, you can really leave them for as long as you need (up to a week) because they’ll just become dried pasta. When you’re ready to cook them, do exactly the same as you would if they were fresh, but just cook them for a little bit longer until they are al dente. The cooking time will depend completely on how dry and thick they are, so you’ll have to use intuition on this one.
The thing with natural products like beetroot is that some might contain more or less water than another. For that reason, your dough might need a little bit more or less liquid to get the right consistency. If it is a little bit dry and doesn’t form a squishy dough when you pinch it together, just add about a tbsp of water and blend again. If it’s still too crumbly, add another splash and repeat until it’s done.
If it’s too wet, do the opposite and add another tbsp of flour. Just don’t panic, it’ll be fine! 🙂
If your food processor isn’t very powerful, you might find that it doesn’t break down the spinach enough to get any liquid out of it and form a dough with the flour. If that’s the case and you know your blender isn’t very strong, try blitzing your beetroot first until you get a bright purple paste then add the flour and continue the recipe as usual.
Mon Mack Food is my little space to share my passion for food. It is also a place to document the recipes I’ve created while cooking for friends and family! While it is now just a hobby, my absolute dream is to build this project into something I can one day call my job 🙂
