Pasta Rose Salad – fresh pasta, homemade tomato sauce with garlic and Greek Basil, Spinach Leaves, Thai Basil leaves, toasted walnuts, Parmigiano Reggiano, and drizzled with Olive Oil.

We used this recipe: http://www.food.com/recipeprint.do?rid=288125 for the pasta dough and mixed the ingredients in the mixer bowl.

The pasta dough was placed on a floured surface and kneaded.

Kneading the pasta dough

The dough was pressed flat, wrapped in plastic wrap and chilled for about 1 hour.

I have a hand crank pasta machine but prefer the efficiency of the KitchenAid pasta attachment. A floured ball of dough, about the size of a small fist, is placed in the top of the pasta machine, with the plain rollers and thickness setting 1.

The flattened dough that comes out of the machine is folded in half and then run through the rollers on setting 1 again.

Each time the dough is passed through the rollers, the texture becomes finer, stretchier and less lumpy.

Once the dough is fine enough, usually after 5 or 6 passes, the setting is changed to 2 and the dough is passed through without folding it in half.

The settings are changed with each pass of the dough. The dough is kept brushed with flour so it won’t stick to the rollers. When the dough becomes too long or too wide to fit the roller, it is cut into smaller pieces.

The final width of the pasta is 2 1/2″ or 3″ wide with a thickness setting of 7 on the machine, which is quite thin. about 1.5 mm.

The floured strips of pasta were laid on a floured surface as we completed each one. They were then hung from a rack for an hour or two until cooked. I did not want them drying out lest they crack so we covered them with a towel.

One long piece of pasta is dropped into boiling water.

Pasta cooking.

The pasta is cooked about six minutes or so, till el dente.

Steaming pasta in the colander.

Begin the rose at the center. Starting at one end of the long pasta ribbon, the pasta is folded and rolled to form the center bud.

With the bud in the left hand, the long ribbon of pasta is wrapped around the bud clockwise. Occasionally the long ribbon of pasta is folded over to form a folded edge of a petal.

Once enough of the rose is established, it is placed on the serving plate and the folding and wrapping of the pasta ribbon continues around the rose.

When the rose is the size desired, any excess pasta is cut off and the rose is positioned as desired.

To make a rose bud, start with a 5″ piece of pasta ribbon and fold the right side forward diagonally.

Make another fold on the opposite side toward the center, forming a pointed triangle.

Slightly scrunch up the base of the piece to form a bud.

Place the bud partially under the edge of the rose.

A paint brush is used to brush tomato sauce between the rose petals.

A small spoonful of sauce is placed in the center of the rose.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil is drizzled over the top of the pasta and spinach leaves.

Thai basil is spicier than broad leaf basil and has a delicious anise flavor. I placed one Thai basil leaf on top of several of the spinach leaves for color and flavor.

Toasted walnuts are placed on the plate with the spinach leaves and Parmigiano Reggiano is grated over the top. The final garnish is a small cluster of Thai Basil.

The completed Pasta Rose Salad. Please click photo to see a larger image.

Thrown-together Pasta Rose, served warm. It was ugly and absolutely delicious!

Pasta Rose Salad