Ramp leaf pasta that actually tastes like everyone's favorite garlicky onion? You'd better believe it. This ramp pasta recipe is different than most other pasta doughs I make. The secret is in how the wild leek greens are added to the dough. Read on and I'll explain.
Green pasta is pretty and delicious, but it's hard to make anything with butter and parmesan taste bad. The pasta will never really taste like what's used to make it after cooking, unless you use an herb like basil.
How to Make Ramp Pasta
The rampiest ramp pasta is different from other colored doughs in that you need to keep the ramps raw. To do that, you have to puree them raw, and it will be tough to do in a food processor. A highspeed blender is your best bet here.
To make the pasta dough, you take 5 oz of fresh ramp greens and mix them in a blender with 5 egg yolks and puree to a smooth puree.
Next you mix the ramp-egg puree into flour and mix in a stand mixer, starting with the paddle attachment and moving to the dough hook to knead it. When the dough is evenly mixed it's wrapped in cling film and refrigerated for 20 minutes to rest before rolling out.
Roll out the dough to the 3rd to last setting on the pasta roller. Flour the sheets of dough and roll them up, then cut into rustic fettucine, pappardelle, fazzoletti, or another shape you like.
How to Serve Ramp Pasta
To cook the pasta, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook al dente as for fresh noodles. They'll cook very fast and only take a minute or two until the float and are ready to drain.
You can serve the noodles by themselves with just butter and parmesan, but they'll be more interesting with some other spring ingredients added to them. Here's a few ideas:
- Add sauteed fiddleheads and chopped ramp leaves
- The simplest version could be just chopped ramp bulbs and leaves, and parmigiano reggiano or pecorino romano cheese
- With morels and ramps
- Young nettles, about two inches tall, left whole or roughly chopped
- Ramp pesto pasta, or nettle pesto
- Use it in my Ramp and Morel Spaghetti
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Ramp Pasta
Equipment
- Pasta roller
- Highspeed blender
Ingredients
- 5 large egg yolks
- 4.5 ounces fresh ramp leaves about 4.5 cups of sliced leaves
- 8 oz all purpose flour 2 cups of flour
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- flour, semolina or fine cornmeal, for dusting as needed
Instructions
- Roughly chop the ramp leaves and combine in a highspeed blender with the egg yolks. Puree the mixture, ideally using the accelerator attachment-it will take a few seconds.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer or by hand, combine the flour and salt. Pour in the ramp puree but don't scrape all of it from the blender. Mix the ingredients together with a paddle attachment until just combined, then squeeze it with your hands to make it stick together.
- If the dough seems dry, add a little extra ramp puree.
- If the dough seems wet, add a little extra flour until it feels right.
- Switch to the dough hook and knead for a minute. Allow the dough to rest for 30 minutes wrapped in cling film before rolling out.
- After cutting, toss the cut pasta in semolina flour or fine cornmeal to prevent sticking. Freeze the pasta or store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, tossing occasionally with more semolina or fine cornmeal if needed to prevent sticking.
- To serve the pasta, bring a pot of salted water to a boil, add the pasta and cook for a minute or two until they float. Remove the pasta with a spyder strainer, toss with your favorite spring ingredients, butter or olive oil and plenty of grated parmesan. A simple sauce like pesto works too.
Steve
Made this for the first time a couple weeks ago and it turned out perfectly. Great flavor, texture and color!🥳
Alan Bergo
Thanks Steve. Glad it worked for you.
Ben
I thought it would be too much liquid but it was just about perfect, and it sure is rampy. Thanks Chef!
Lisa Keys
Making your recipe as I type. First, cool down the water used to blanch the ramps and use that for more flavor in the recipe. Second, wish you had given a range of how much water you use. I found the recipe to have too much flour in it. I removed a good half cup otherwise the dough would have needed a lot of water for it to come together.
Alan Bergo
Lisa, thanks for commenting. I've been making fresh pasta for over 20 years and I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt: adding blanching liquid to pasta dough may sound nice in theory, but you won't taste any difference in the finished product. I stand by the proportions in this recipe as I've used the same proportions for many greens over the years.
Dee
Can you dry the ramp noodles safely while still retaining a good "rampy" flavor?
Alan Bergo
Hi Dee, so, I don't recommend drying pasta at home. Fresh pasta should is best cooked fresh, and if dried it will become very brittle. Something I learned very early on when I tried to impress my manager at McDonalds by bringing her some angle hair (we all start somewhere). Commercial pasta is made using mechanical processes and durum semolina, so it's different than what you'll make at home. If you want to store the pasta for later, freeze it in bundles on a cookie sheet, then transfer to a bag, or freeze as a ball of dough. Dried pasta will never have much of a strong flavor, whatever it's made with (sans strong spices like pepper, etc). Coloring with pureed greens is more aesthetic and textural.
julie freund
This was so good! (I used the blanched ramp recipe and added a bit more fresh). Would freezing the dough affect the color or taste?
Alan Bergo
You'll be fine freezing the dough, but it may be wet after thawing so just flour it well when you roll it out.