Recipe of the Week: Tagliatelle Pasta Cacio e Pepe
My hometown Bologna is known throughout Italy for its homemade pasta. One of the town’s most popular pastas is tagliatelle, my favorite. It is a wider and thinner version of fettuccine, about 8 millimeters. Both are made by rolling out the dough thin, then roll up and cut into strips. This recipe combines the city’s best homemade tagliatelle with a recipe given to me by two friends, Cristina Blasi and Gabriella Mari, owners of Le Cordon Blue, one of the best cooking schools in Florence, Italy. Serves eight. (Chef tip: Use frozen spinach to make the tagliatelle to flavor the pasta; it will incorporate easily into the dough, giving it a deeper color and better flavor. Cook the spinach in the microwave or on top of the stove, without adding any additional water, for five minutes at low heat. Process in the food processor or blender until you achieve a smooth puree.)
1 pound fresh tagliatelle pasta
1 cup freshly grated Pecorino cheese
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon fresh Italian parsley, chopped, divided use
1/2 cup de-fatted chicken stock
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
In a 12-inch saute pan, melt the butter. Add half of the parsley and pepper. Cook for two to three minutes. Add the stock and bring it to a boil; adjust the seasoning with salt. Add the cheese. Remove from the heat and stir until the cheese is well incorporated.
Add the cooked pasta to the cheese sauce with some of the cooking water if needed. Toss to combine. Serve immediately topped with the remaining parsley.
HOMEMADE TAGLIATELLE
3 cups “00” Italian or all-purpose flour
1/2 cup frozen chopped spinach, puree
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon sea salt
Cook the spinach according to package directions, about five minutes. Puree using a food processor or blender. Set aside and let cool completely. Place flour on a wooden board and form into a mound. Make a deep well in the center and break the eggs into it. Add the salt and cooked spinach puree. Use a fork to break up the egg and mix the contents of the well.
Slowly add flour, beginning at the top of the well so that the walls collapse and blend into the mixture. When the flour is almost totally absorbed, begin kneading, pressing with the palms of your hands. Knead the dough for about 20 minutes, until it becomes smooth and elastic. (If the dough is dry, add a few drops of water. If it is sticky, add a sprinkle of flour.) Gather the dough into a ball, place it in a mixing bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes.
Roll out the dough using either a rolling pin or pasta machine into a thin and long strip. Allow the dough to dry for five minutes, so that the edges of the dough start to curl up. Brush both sides of the dough with flour, roll it up and cut it into 1/4-inch wide strips of tagliatelle.
Bring a 10-quart pot of water to a boil. Add two teaspoons of sea salt and add the prepared pasta. Stir and cover the pot until water comes to a boil. Remove the lid and stir the pasta; cook until “al dente” to the tooth, about two to three minutes.