If you liked the flag pastries, we have even more fun flag-related food in store for you. This red, white, and blue pasta is made from all natural colors. It’s tasty, pretty, and it could be a great addition to your next summer meal.

Have you ever made homemade pasta before? One of the easiest ways to do it is with an extruder. We used the Philips Pasta and Noodle Maker with four interchangeable shape plates. We also kept all of our handiwork organized with a collapsible spiral drying rack. Both of these tools make pasta making an incredibly easy and satisfying project.

When you use the Philips pasta maker, you don’t need to do much “cooking.” The only thing you really need to do for regular pasta is measure out the flour and water and crack an egg. The machine does everything else for you. But when you make colored pasta (and if you’re not using any artificial colors), you need to go through one more step of creating the dyes first.

Red pasta

Beets are the natural choice for perfect red pasta. To make the red dye, take one beet, peel and chop it, cover it with water in a small saucepan, bring the water to a boil, and let it simmer for about 30 minutes. Pour off the red liquid, let it cool, and then add it to your dough mix instead of plain water. (You can reserve the beets for another use.)

Blue pasta

Getting the shade of blue just right is a little trickier because you have to balance the pH level. To make blue dye, take a half head of purple cabbage, coarsely chop it, and cover it with water in a small saucepan. Bring the water to a boil and let it simmer for about 30 minutes. Remove it from the heat, strain out the cabbage with a slotted spoon, and add approximately 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda to the liquid. (It will fizz up). The liquid should now be blue. Add it to the dough in place of regular water.

You can experiment with different shapes and textures, but we had the most fun making this flag with fetuccini for the stripes and small penne for the blue and white “stars.”