Pici verde with roast tomatoes and paprika meatballs
Two ingredients – strong Italian '00' flour and spinach – go into this homemade pasta. You can cook it from fresh or leave to dry out. Delicious with these paprika beef and pork meatballs, topped with plenty of fresh basil.
Ingredients
For the pasta
- 200g/7oz spinach, washed well
- 300–350g/10½–12oz Italian '00' flour (strong white flour)
For the meatballs
- 1 tbsp olive oil, plus extra
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 300²µ/10½´Ç³ú minced beef
- 300²µ/10½´Ç³ú minced pork
- 100g/3½oz soft white breadcrumbs
- 50ml/2fl oz soured cream or crème fraîche
- 2 tsp sweet smoked paprika
- 1 tsp hot smoked paprika (or to taste)
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 2 tbsp finely chopped parsley
- 1 free-range egg
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the roast tomatoes
- 400g/14oz cherry tomatoes, halved
- salt, to taste
- sprig thyme, leaves only
- 2 garlic cloves, finely sliced
- 2-3 tbsp olive oil
To garnish
Method
To make the pasta, shake off any excess water from the spinach and put into a food processor with 300²µ/10½´Ç³ú of the flour. Blend together until the spinach has completely broken down and formed a dough. You may need to push everything down the sides once or twice. Check the dough – if it is very sticky (this will depend on how wet your spinach is), add more flour. The best texture is soft and very slightly tacky.
Roll out the pasta. Do this by pulling off small balls (around the size of a large marble). Start off by rolling between your hands then laying out on a work surface and rolling lightly with both hands, moving from the centre outwards. If it is very sticky, dust your hands with a little flour, but try not to use too much as it makes the pasta much harder to roll – it will slide away from you.
The pasta can be cooked right away, in a large pan of boiling, salted water, or it can be dried out. If you are cooking from fresh, it will take five minutes; if it is dry, it will take 8-10 minutes.
For the meatballs, heat the olive oil in a frying pan and add the onion. Cook on a medium to low heat until very soft and translucent, then add the garlic and continue to cook for another minute or two. Remove from the heat and cool.
Put the beef and pork in a large bowl with the breadcrumbs, soured cream (or crème fraîche), two types of paprika, herbs and egg. Add the onion and garlic and season very generously. Mix thoroughly.
Take a small amount of the mixture and fry it. When it is cooked, taste for seasoning and adjust accordingly – meatball mixture often needs more salt than you think. Form the mixture into 20 balls.
To cook, either preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6 and bake for 18-20 minutes, turning them over halfway through, until well browned and piping hot in the centre. Or heat some oil in a large frying pan and cook them in two batches, turning regularly.
For the roast tomatoes, lay the tomatoes in a roasting tin or ceramic ovenproof dish, cut-side up. Sprinkle with salt, thyme leaves, garlic and the olive oil, then roast for around 10 minutes, or until well softened and very slightly browned round the edges.
Serve the meatballs and tomatoes with all the pan juices over the pasta, garnished with plenty of basil and grated parmesan.
