Fresh Egg Pasta for Tagliatelle

100 grams of 00 flour per person

1 large egg per 100 grams of flour

Place the eggs in the bowl of a mixer .  Add all the flour . Mix on low speed using the dough hook.  Every few minutes stop the mixer and push down any flour that has collected on the sides of the bowl.  Continue to mix the dough until it forms a soft ball that comes away from the sides of the bowl.  The dough will be soft but not sticky.

Cut the dough into 100 gram portions.  Flatten each piece out and run it through the first setting of the roller.  Fold in half, and continue to run it through the first setting.  Repeat 5 or 6 times until the dough is smooth and shiny.  Wrap in plastic and let it rest while you prepare your sauce.

Once again, flatten each piece of dough and feed it through the first setting. Follow with the second and continue up through the sixth setting.  By this time your dough should be thin enough for a flat noodle like tagliatelle.

Lay the sheet of dough on a cool, lightly floured surface. Each sheet should be about 15 inches long.   Bring each end into the center . Bring the outside folds into the center again.  Using a chef’s knife, cut the dough into 1/4 inch slices.  Unravel each ribbon.  If the dough sticks to itself, you need to add more flour.

Scatter the ribbon noodles on a lightly floured pan.  Bring a pot of salted water to a boil.  When ready to serve, add the pasta to the boiling water , stir once and boil the pasta for about a minute.  Test one by biting into it.  It should be toothsome, not mushy.  Drain in a colander and return to the pot.  Add just enough of your favorite sauce, toss, sprinkle grated parmegian cheese and open the wine.

Here’s a tip. Start the onions first. While they are caramelizing, move to the rest of the preparations for your meal. You’ve got 30 minutes.

Heat a little olive oil in a heavy bottomed pot (I love Le Creuset for this) , add the sliced or diced onions, quickly sauté over medium high heat for 5 minutes, stirring from time to time.  Lower the heat, cover the pot and cook for 25 minutes.  Stir from time to time to evenly distibute the browning.  Your onions should be deliciously wilted, caramelized to perfection.

Oh, and by the way, Onions are a member of the lily family and have been around since 3000 BCE.  They have sulfuric compounds that are known to inhibit cancer.  Remember, browning occurs at 300 degrees or more, so refrain from adding liquid which will forestall the browning.

Here are some pics , before, during, after.

Words can be powerful but they are no substitute for the sensory experience of taste and smell.  If I was going to talk about my business, Cucina della Terra, a cooking school in Italy, 3000 miles away, I needed to demonstrate how certain foods are distinctive and worthy of a trip to the country of origin.

By the time I reached the classroom I was loaded down with shopping bags filled with napkins, paring knife, parmegiano reggiano, an Argentine reginatto, a 25 year old balsamic vinegar and a highly commercial unaged balsamic, sliced ciabatta, and two bottles of olive oil: one from my own harvest in 2008, and one from Sicily that was unfiltered but with no DOP status, and of course some wet wipes. While everyone else had briefcases and computers slung over their shoulders, I was schlepping shopping bags of food.  Talk about feeling like the New York bag lady.

In a very simple way, I created a contrast of tastes.

To a group of students focused on a topic in business, there attention was diverted to thinking about the food in front of them.  Packaging became less important than the experience of taste and the quality of what we tasted.   Ultimately where our food comes from and how it is produced is far more important. So, the next time you are reaching for a highly publicized product, think about why and for what you are putting your money down  - and ask yourself if it’s worth it. ?

Saluti

Some of the fresh ingredients and a peek at the pizza upskirt.

If you’ve ever made pizza from scratch, you’ll realize the importance of working with your hands. From forming the dough, to kneading it after it rises, to stretching it out on a peel, and finally topping it with ingredients—there’s no doubt that the hands make it happen. Maybe it’s the Italian in me, but ever since making pizza from start to finish, I want to make everything with my hands. No mixers, whisks, spatulas.

This is the practice I (and about 15 others) learned at a Contemporary Italian Pizzarecreational division class at the Institute of Culinary Education led by Gerri Sarnataro, chef-instructor at the school, pizza master, and founder of a cooking school for vacationers in Umbria, Italy.

During the five hours in a pastry kitchen with Sarnataro, we went through the motions of creating the perfect Neapolitan-style pizza at home. She provided us with a packet of recipes for entertaining friends and family later, but what we wanted to make was up to our creativity and taste buds.

Gerri presented premade dough from 25 pounds of flour as the base for our pizzas that night, but we still made our own dough to take home. After dividing us into teams for prep tasks—chopping onions and caramelizing them, making homemade tomato sauce, shredding mozzarella di bufala, tearing apart artichokes, cooking sausage—we formed our eight-ounce portions of premade dough into discs, about eight inches wide, and just thin enough to avoid tearing. Just so you can get an idea, here’s almost all of the toppings we could choose from:

Cheeses

Stracchino, Caciocavallo, Gorgonzola, Robiola, Mozzarella: di bufala & plain old fresh, Ricotta, Parmesano Reggiano, Pecorino Romano

Vegetables (all Prepared by Students)

Tomato sauce, porcini mushrooms, cremini mushrooms, artichokes, caramelized onions, bell peppers, black olives, capers, arugula, zucchini, zucchini flowers

Fresh Herbs

Oregano, tarragon, rosemary, basil (and pesto from scratch)

Meats and Fish

Prosciutto, sweet and hot Italian sausage, anchovies, bottarga

Here are the two best pies I made:

The classic: Homemade tomato sauce, fresh cow’s milk mozzarella and mozzarella di bufala, sweet Italian sausage, fresh oregano, all drizzled with some olive oil.

The winner: Pizza bianca covered in ricotta, both mozzarellas, pesto, zucchini, and caramelized onions. A light dusting of Parmesan after it came out of the oven turned it from pretty tasty to downright craveworthy.

During tasting time, we poured glasses of wine, and one by one, once pizzas were done coming out of the deck ovens, we sliced them and marveled at our creations. Because we were in a pastry kitchen, my teammate (and blogger) Noah attempted adessert pizza with almond paste and chocolate (too bad there was no mascarpone!).

Re-creating the process at home could be a bit difficult without an appropriate oven, but Sarnataro recommends a pizza stone for the best results. I was able to take home enough dough for four pizzas (which went straight into the freezer), and a bunch of leftovers for lunch the next day. Beginners thrive in a classroom with Gerri, as she demonstrates and then individually assists if necessary (she actually took my hands in hers to knead the dough so I could get the feel of it). Though she’s not teaching any more pizza classes this semester, she does have a whole listing of other Recreational offerings at the school, which can be found on the course calendar.

The Institute of Culinary Education

50 West 23rd Street, New York NY 10010
800-522-4610
iceculinary.com