How To: Rainbow (Green) Pasta!

As I did have this prepared BEFORE the computer issues I will go ahead and post this. Technically its a double post day. HOWEVER If I make a post that is to update outside of the posting schedule then that does not make it a double post day if its not part of the blog posting schedule. I will do my best to post if things are delayed/behind schedule, or I won't be able to post or am away for an extended period of time. Other than that please bear with me. Thank you!


Good Day! I'm going to jump right into things today. This is about how I attempted to create rainbow pasta and only had green food coloring. So I as I often do, I make do with what I have. So it can look like IRISH or lettuce pasta! (ie i didn't has monies to do all the food coloring)

This is based on http://gizmodo.com/5990191/how-to-make-rainbow-pasta 's version of how to. Yet as the most I had was green food coloring I figured make due with what I have as that is part of what frugal people such as myself do. So what I didn't have all the food color dyes, it can be Easter colored, grass colored or Martian/Alien Pasta! The end result was that the family was pleasantly surprised and my daughter loved it!

Here is what you will need:
- Spaghetti or pasta of choice*
- depending on your serving size 1-3 large ziploc bags. I used the gallon sized.
- green food dye or dye of choice. if you are going to do the rainbow pasta then 5 bags, one for each food coloring. As I was doing one dye and was making a big batch I ended up needed 2
- salt
- pasta pot

*Try to stick to fettuccine  angel hair or thin pasta. The pasta similar to what I used such as rigatoni, farfalla (bowties), macaroni, and other thin pastas can be used just adjust dye times as needed.
 Shown here are the pastas (spaghetti and rigatoni), the food dye, the pasta sauce I planned to use, plastic bag and salt. And then a better picture of the spaghetti and salt containers with the plastic bags.

Fill your pot with water, basically stick to the box directions or what you normally do, throw in a pinch of salt. (ie a big old pinch in your hand and dump it in. Keep in mind back in the days when people would say a pinch they didn't mean a literally pinch they mean pour some in the palm/cup of your hand enough to be a dime or quarter size and toss in. I recently learned that via my father in law. THANK YOU!)
Bring the water to a boil, cook the pasta and so on. Now as I am doing my version while doing my best to follow the link's guide keep this in mind results may vary.
While you are waiting for your pasta to cook take your bag or bags and fill each with ONE food color. about 20 -30 drops depending on the vibrancy you want and 2 tablespoons of water. As I was doing ONE color I did about 30 drops and three table spoons as I was planning for this to be a big batch.
                                             
Now when done, put the pasta in the collander, rinse to cool off the pasta. I mean it, RINSE, DOUSE IT. Cooling off means you can put your hand in without going OUCH because the pasta is hot. It needs to be luke warm or so. Now not thinking ahead, I later needed another bag and did about 20 drops and 2 tablespoons of water
                                           
If you are doing all five colors portion your pasta out into each bag, close it up and give it a good shake. Check that, shake it until the pasta is completely coated in each bag and let it sit for five minutes so the dye can absorb into it.
                                           
As I mentioned I needed two bags. Sorry for the blurry pictures as I had to use my back up camera.

HERE IS THE IMPORTANT PART. When time is up, put them BACK in the collander. If its just one collar all of it or one bag at a time. If its many colors one color per. Why? Because you are going to rinse each bag one at a time. This will wash off any excess dye and keep it from staining your sauce or meat that you put in your pasta. I didn't rinse mine well enough so it did stain my pasta meat and sauce hehe.
                                     

For me, I cook the pasta meat separately then add the meat and sauce when done. This is the end result. It looks worse than it tastes as there are no leftovers I think the meal speaks for itself. Yes the sauce went from red to brown due to me not completely rinsing the dye. Yet no one seemed to mind!
So, this was my attempt at an experiment and it was successful! Try your hand at it and see what happens! Thank you for reading and see you next time!