Dark greens and noodles with yoghurt

Here, you can use any greens that will wilt! Chard, kale, spinach… but a combination of spinach, wild garlic and nettles (as you see in the photo) is exceptionally good. This recipe is inspired by an Azerbaijan minced meat khingial recipe, but as always, I try to create a vegetarian version so my husband can enjoy it with the rest of the family.

Dark greens and noodles with yogurt Credit: Bloomsbury / Joe Woodhouse

• serves

  2

• prep

  20 minutes

• cook

  45 minutes

• difficulty

  Mid

You absolutely can buy ready-made fresh lasagne sheets and cut them into 6cm diamonds, or break up dried lasagne sheets, but if you are making this for a special occasion, do make the homemade pasta so it’s extra-special. If you decide to make fresh pasta, please, don’t be scared. It’s easy, you do not need a pasta machine, in fact hand-rolled is preferable. If it’s your very first time, give yourself a break and don’t stress if it comes out just a little thicker than you are used to.

Ingredients

• 100 ml water
• 1 large egg
• 250 g pasta flour (‘00’ flour), or plain flour, plus more to dust
• 600 g onions (you won’t use them all, but they are so good)
• 60 g clarified butter or regular butter
• splash of vegetable oil
• 300 g any dark green leaves or 100g each nettles, wild garlic and spinach
• sea salt and black pepper

To serve

• 150 ml yoghurt
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• Fine crispy breadcrumbs

Resting time: 30 minutes, over overnight.

Instructions

1. Pour the measured water into a large bowl and add the egg. Whisk it in well. Then add the flour, mixing it with your hand thoroughly into a soft dough. Sprinkle a work surface with more flour and knead the dough until it stops sticking to your hands and is smooth. Leave it to rest, covered, for at least 30 minutes, or up to 24 hours in the fridge overnight.
2. You won’t need all the onions in this recipe, only half. But there is no point doing this in smaller quantities, also the onions are so good you can use them in a myriad of other dishes. So, cut the onions in half and slice them finely along the grain. Melt 30g of clarified butter, or use a knob of regular butter and a splash of oil. Add the onions and a generous pinch of salt. Cover with a lid if you have one, or with a cartouche (a round piece of baking parchment), and let them sweat over medium-low heat for 20 minutes. They will become soft and translucent. Now uncover, increase the heat to medium and cook for another 10 minutes, stirring from time to time. If they become dry and start catching, add splashes of water and deglaze. See what they are like after the 10 minutes, chances are you will need another 5–10 minutes of cooking. You want them to be deeply amber and caramelised.
3. Take half the rested dough and mould it into a flattish disc with your hands. Roll it out over a well-floured surface into a rough circle, 45cm in diameter if you can, but no need to go overboard and make it see-through or anything. Roll it up around your floured rolling pin. Slash lengthways with a knife, once, along the pin, without dragging the knife. The dough will drop to the surface in layers of dough strips. Cut them in half lengthways, and then on the diagonal at 6cm intervals. You will have lots of diamond-shaped pieces of pasta. Put them on a floured tray so they don’t stick together. Repeat with the other half of the dough. If they are not to be used immediately, you can freeze them to be used another time. If you freeze them, again make sure they are well-floured so they don’t merge and form a giant pasta monster.
4. If you are using nettles, have a bowl with cold water and ice at the ready. Pop them into a saucepan and cover them with boiling water, boil for 3 minutes, then take them out with tongs or a spider and plunge them into the iced water. Now that the nettles are disarmed, cut off any of the thick stalks and chop across the leaves.
5. Now add the nettles and sliced wild garlic and spinach to a pan and cook over medium-low heat in the remaining clarified butter for 5–10 minutes.
6. If using other greens, there’s no need to blanch them, just put them into a pan sliced and raw with the remaining clarified butter. Season well with salt and pepper and cook until they look soft and wilted (kale will take longer than spinach). Mix together the yoghurt and garlic in a bowl.
7. Cook the pasta in well-salted water for 2–3 minutes. Then drain, but not too vigorously, you want a little bit of the pasta water. Put them into the pan with the cooked greens, add half of the caramelised onions (save the rest for later) and mix them thoroughly as well. Put everything on a platter, dot garlicky yoghurt around and sprinkle over sumac and crispy breadcrumbs.

 

Recipe and image from Home Food by Olia Hercules, photography by Joe Woodhouse (Bloomsbury, HB$46.80).

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.

You absolutely can buy ready-made fresh lasagne sheets and cut them into 6cm diamonds, or break up dried lasagne sheets, but if you are making this for a special occasion, do make the homemade pasta so it’s extra-special. If you decide to make fresh pasta, please, don’t be scared. It’s easy, you do not need a pasta machine, in fact hand-rolled is preferable. If it’s your very first time, give yourself a break and don’t stress if it comes out just a little thicker than you are used to.