Category Archives: Recipes – Pasta

Pappardelle Verde al ragu d’Anatra – Green hand made pasta with Duck sauce

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We had a couple of friends over for dinner and decided to make Green Pappardelle wit Duck Ragu.

Pappardelle

Pasta is one of those wonderful products where with just two or three ingredients many different products can be created, and it should always be the pasta that is the prominent component of the dish and not so much the sauce. The sauce and the type of paste needs to match in such a way that they both compliment each other. In this case Pappardelle and Duck Ragu is the ideal match

When making fresh pasta you need about 100 g of flour per serving, if you are not having a dish to follow after the pasta as many people do. We however always have the pasta as a first coarse (Primi Piatti) after the Antipasto and before the second coarse (Secondi Piatti), finishing off with a salad, and in this case 60 g flour per serving should suffice.

500 G Plain Flour

5 Eggs lightly beaten

15 – 20 Fresh Spinach leaves

Mix the flour and eggs and knead until smooth. This should be a hard dough, but should it be too difficult to work, add a small bit of water. Leave it covered to rest in the fridge for one hour. Take small quantities (about 50 g) at a time, flatten it out by hand and then roll it out with a pasta machine on the thickest setting. Fold it over, turn it 90 degrees and put through the machine again. Do this a couple of times until the pasta is smooth and homogeneous. Use enough dry flour during this process to avoid stickiness. Lay the pasta sheets out on a floured surface and repeat with the rest until all the dough has been used. On half of each sheet of pasta, lay out the fresh spinach leaves and fold the sheet over to make a sandwich. Now repeat the process of putting it through the pasta machine, folding over, turning 90 degrees and putting it through again, until the pasta and spinach are well mixed and smooth. Once all his is done, put every sheet gradually through a thinner setting of the pasta machine, until the finest setting ( 7 ?) is achieved for each sheet. Remember to use flour to make it all run smoothly.  Cut the pasta sheets with a knife or pizza cutter in about 20 mm strips. The pasta is now ready to cook or dry, for later use. I normally make this in the morning , or day before, and let it dry for use when required. Fresh pasta cooks very quickly (about 5 minutes) and it is very important not to over cook it (Pasta al dente) otherwise it will be soggy.

Make the sauce of choice to suite Pappardelle and once cooked, drain and mix with the sauce in the sauce pan, heat through while mixing gently and serve immediately.

CIAO!!

Papardelle al Ragǔ d’Quaglia (Quail Sauce Pasta)

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This Quail Sauce works with any pasta, but I prefer to team it with broad home made Pappardelle Pasta (Recipe for Pappardelle on a later occasion).

Quail Sauce 

8 Quails butterflied

6 Tablespoon Olive Oil

30 g Butter

4 Cloves Garlic finely sliced

2 Medium Onions sliced

1 Red Sweet Pepper/ Pepperoni seeds removed and sliced in strips

2 Small Carrots diced

Half a fresh Chilli finely sliced

4 Cups Quail or Chicken Stock

1 Fresh Tomato chopped

Salt

Pepper

2 Glasses Good Red Wine (One for the Chef and one for the dish) 

Home made Papardelle (Enough for four people – about 300g of flour and 3 eggs)

Put the olive oil, butter, garlic and onion in  a large casserole pot and saute over medium heat until soft. Turn up the heat, ad the Quails and brown on all sides. Ad the wine (one glass only) and let it simmer until the wine has evaporated. Turn down the heat, ad the carrots, pepperoni and chilli and baste, adding stock to keep it moist in the partially covered the pot. Adjust for Salt and Pepper. When the meat is soft and comes away from the bones, which may take up to an hour, remove the quails from the pot and remove the flesh from the bones. If the sauce in the pot is too runny reduce it over medium heat until the right consistency – if too dry ad some stock. Add the deboned Quail back to the sauce and heat through well. In the mean time cook the Papardelle and just before ready ad the chopped tomato to the sauce and stir through well.  Now drain and ad the Pappardelle to the sauce pot, stir and heat through – serve immediately.

Ricotta and Beetroot Tops Pasta. One of the best pastas I have ever eaten and I have eaten a LOT of pasta!

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Most of the ricotta has been devoured; we ate it on toast with jam on top, as part of an antipasto spread involving the roast carrots and beetroot that the tops came from, and I am ashamed to say that I ate some ‘straight’ using a spoon. Today’s lunch was delicious and quick to prepare

Ricotta and Beetroot Tops Pasta 

2  cloves garlic

4   tablespoons of olive oil (More if tr is too tight)

1  pinch chili flakes

3  cups cooked beetroot tops. I have quite a lot in the fridge after cooking my harvest.  link

4  strips of bacon, chopped ( normally I would use panchetta, but where I live good quality Italian meats are non existent)

1/2 cup of ricotta (or, in my case, as much as you have left over)

Spaghetti

Parmigiano grated

Put the spaghetti into fast boiling, salted water. Cook until al dente, not soggy. Use a pan big enough to hold the sauce and the pasta. Crisp the bacon  in olive oil and add the chili and garlic. When the garlic has softened add the beetroot tops and fry for a bit. Cook until the beetroot is hot, check for salt and pepper. Stir in the ricotta, not too well,  keep a few lumps in the mix  Add the pasta and mix. Serve with grated parmgiano .