Eat the Rainbow: Rainbow Pasta

I’ve recently amassed a few unicorn-themed cookbooks. I’ve decided to start a new series where I try and review various recipes from these cookbooks.

This is an adapted recipe from Unicorn Food: Magical Recipes for Sweets, Eats & Treats by Rachel Johnson. The original recipe is for 1 pound of pasta and calls for the following ingredients:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt
• 6 large eggs at room temp.
• 3 tsp. extra virgin olive oil
• All natural food coloring
• Semolina flour, for dusting

My adaptations: I used 2 cups of flour, one of which was semolina flour. Based on previous pasta making experiences, I’ve found using this flour makes the dough more elastic and pliable. I also used 3 eggs instead of 6.

With this recipe, you mix the food coloring into the dough. I wonder whether you can achieve the same effect by cooking the pasta into dyed water and/or dye the noodles after cooking them.

While it’s fun to make pasta from scratch, I wouldn’t recommend it unless you have a pasta maker. A pasta maker makes it so much easier! I also recommend making the noodles a little thicker. I made mine a little too thin and they clumped together.

This pasta goes well with any sauce, though I did find using melted butter and sprinkled cheese made for a much more aesthetically pleasing photo. Using red sauce covered all the beautiful rainbow noodles.

I’ve also heard from educators and parents that making this can be a fun sensory/play activity for children.

Regardless of how you decide to prepare this, it’s pretty fun and colorful. My husband said it felt like he was eating a “6 year-old’s dinner.”

You might try pairing it with some rainbow sourdough bread!