🥬 Spinach

Spinach (Spinacia oleracea) is a leafy vegetable of the amaranth family, and in pasta it is the classic natural colour for green dough. It is added to durum wheat semolina or egg dough as dried spinach powder, spinach purée or, in fresh pasta, cooked chopped leaves.

The amount is small: Italian and German producers usually declare about 2–3% dried spinach in the ingredient list, enough to tint the pasta and give it a mild vegetal taste. Barilla Emiliane Lasagne Verdi and Paglia e Fieno, De Cecco spinach tagliatelle and the green pieces of tricolour pasta from La Fabbrica della Pasta, Misko and Gallo all use spinach this way. In filled pasta spinach goes into the filling instead, most famously with ricotta in tortelloni and ravioli, and in Swabian Maultaschen.

For dry pasta the leaves are washed, blanched, dried and milled to a fine powder, which is mixed into the dough before extrusion or rolling. Gentle drying keeps more of the green chlorophyll; long cooking and acidic sauces make the colour duller.

In Italy, dry pasta with ingredients other than durum wheat semolina and water is sold as "pasta speciale" under Decree DPR 187/2001, and the vegetable must be named in the ingredient list. Spinach is not one of the 14 allergens listed in Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011. Green pasta tastes only slightly different from plain pasta and pairs well with butter, cream, cheese and light tomato sauces.