Wet, warm and cloudy. Not ideal weather for Minnesota in January. While it isn’t frigid cold like it was a week ago, I still crave some wholesome, warm, eat-until-you-want-to-hibernate type of food to make the serotonin flow. This recipe is just that, but with a little fresh zest; a spice and brightness that makes you tell yourself (or your partner), “don’t stop.”
Cozy up this weekend, cook in your underwear, crack a bottle, and make your dinner from scratch.
Egg pasta, yield: 5 servings
Ingredients:
4 large eggs
1c OO flour
3c semolina flour
1t salt
Directions:
In a large sized bowl, combine flours and salt.
Make a well in the flour, add the slightly beaten egg, and mix. Mixture should form stiff dough. If needed, stir in 1 to 2 tablespoons water.
Knead for 10 minutes and let rest for 30 minutes.
Cut the dough in 4 pieces and cover with a damp towel.
Grab one of the pieces of dough and smash it down with your hands until its about 1/4in thick.
Then using a pasta roller, start at the thickest setting and roll the past through it (you may want to do this setting twice). Then, lower the setting by one notch and roll the pasta through. Continue until you reach the thinnest setting.
You should have a rather long sheet of pasta. Cut into 10in lengths and layer them on top of each other, making sure there is a fair amount of semolina flour between the layers so it doesn’t stick.
Once they are stacked nicely, cut pasta every 1in and set aside with plastic wrap or damp towel over the top.
Cook pasta in salty, boiling water until tender.
Using this same technique, you can cut different sizes to get different noodles.
Some ribbon pasta sizes include:
Pappardelle: ¾-1in wide ribbon cut
Tagliatelle: 1/4in wide ribbon cut
Linguine: 1/5in wide
Fettucine: thick noodle 1/2in wide
Veal Ragú, yield: 4 servings
Ingredients:
2lbs cage free, local veal, ground
1 onion, small dice
1 stalk celery, small dice
1 carrot, small dice
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 can roasted tomatoes, chopped with juice
1T tomato paste
1ea orange, just the zest of the whole orange
5 sprigs, fresh thyme
1ea bay leaf
1t crushed red pepper
1c red wine
1c vegetable or chicken stock
Salt/pepper
Directions:
Heat a large pot on the stove with 5T grapeseed oil until the oil starts to smoke, on med-high heat.
Gently place the ground veal into the oil, let it sear for 5 mins or so, then flip and repeat until the veal is nicely caramelized and almost cooked through. Then season with salt and black pepper.
Add onion, celery, carrot, garlic, bay, crushed red pepper and thyme. Sauté for 5 mins while scraping all of the fond of the bottom of the pan.
Turn heat down to medium flame and add stock, wine, chopped tomatoes with juice, tomato paste and whisk together until fully incorporated, then add the orange zest. Bring to a simmer and taste it.
Reduce heat to a simmer and cover. Simmer for 1 hour, or until sauce is reduced to optimal thickness.
When done, pull out the thyme stalks.
Taste for salt and acid. The ragú should be rich and bright.
Mount 5oz Ragú with 2T butter and serve over 5oz cooked pappardelle (or whichever pasta you choose) with fresh grated Parmesan over the top.
