Tagliatelle con prosciutto e funghi (tagliatelle pasta with prosciutoo and mushrooms)
My first adventure with food as part of my New Year’s resolution. Follow it all at www.gearsofmymind.com
So this was my first time making pasta completely from scratch… it was definitely a new experience. All in all it took me about 2 hours to make just the pasta. The things I noticed were the dough was really dry at first so I did need to add a decent amount of water and I may not have used the best kind of prosciutto. If you try this, I definitely wouldn’t jump the gun on adding water to the dough. From my experience making pizza dough, just a tiny bit of water can make a big difference so take it slow. Also, the prosciutto I used was very very dry, granted prosciutto is naturally a pretty dry meat, I probably should have gone with the nicer stuff. Ask the deli you go to for a suggestion on the best kind to use for mixing in to pasta.
Overall, I thought the experience went pretty well. My roommate enjoyed it so as long as that’s the truth it must have been alright.
Pasta Dough
- 2 and a 1/2 cups of unbleached flour
- 3 large eggs
Sauce
- 6 ounces 1/8 inch-thick slices prosciutto
- 1/2 pound button mushrooms, trimmed
- 1 large shallot, finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 3 large or 5 small sage leaves
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1/4 cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
- 1/4 cup finely grated Grana Padano or Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
To Make Dough by Hand:
- Pour flour into a mixing bowl and make a “well” or pit into the center.
- Break the eggs into the well.
- Using a fork, slowly blend the flour and eggs until they are well blended
- If the mixture is wet, slowly add a little flour; if the mixture is dry, slowly add a little water (I found that the mixture was really dry so I had to add water until it was good to go.)
- Knead the dough until the dough has a consistent color and texture.
- Form the dough into a mound shape and cover with a damp towel. Let the dough rest for 10-15 minutes to allow the ingredients to blend together.
- Cut the dough into 3 pieces and get the roll on with your pasta machine.
- Once you have a number of pasta sheets, with the narrow end of 1 pasta sheet facing you, loosely roll up the sheet away from you. Before rolling the dough, lightly dust with flour to prevent them from sticking. With a sharp chefs knife, cut rolled sheet crosswise into scant 1/4 inch-wide strips. Unroll strips and hang on pasta drying rack.
To Make Pasta Sauce:
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Meanwhile, cut prosciutto crosswise into matchsticks and slice mushrooms.
In a large nonstick skillet, combine shallot, butter and sage; heat over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until butter is melted. Add mushrooms and cook, stirring for 1 minute. Remove sage, then stir in prosciutto and cook for 1 minute more.
Add pasta to the boiling water and cook until al dente (about 3 minutes for fresh pasta). Meanwhile, add cream to skillet; bring to a simmer and cook for 1 minute. Stir in parsley and cheese; remove sauce from heat.
When pasta is al dente, reserving 1/4 cup pasta cooking liquid, drain pasta, return to pot, add sauce and toss to combine. Moisten with pasta cooking liquid, if desired. Serve immediately.
The sauce recipe comes from the September/October 2010 issue of La Cucina Italiana.
The dough recipe comes from the instructions of my Roma Pasta Machine. (I meant to use the one in La Cucina Italiana but wasn’t paying attention.)
