From Italian Food
Safari, Maeve O-Meara with Guy Grossi, Hardie Grant Books, 2010.
I had read somewhere that real chefs prefer to make their
pasta by hand rather than use a pasta machine as they claim to be able to
distinguish a metallic taste from the machine. My palate is not anywhere near
that good to be able to recognise such a subtle difference. However, I do find
the claim somewhat specious as such a lot of kitchen equipment is metal you
would think that all foods cooked would have a metallic taste. Nevertheless I
decided that for the pappardelle I would I would not use the machine. I thought
that my pasta was really thin when I rolled it out but when it was cooked it turned
out to be not thin at all. Back to the machine next time.
I used the recipe from Italian
Food Safari just as a basis to follow for I did not have the wild mushrooms that
it needed. I had some button mushrooms to use up.
I fried chopped garlic, sage and marjoram in a pan for a few minutes and then added the
mushrooms and a sprinkling of salt to cook for a few minutes more.
The pasta was added to a pot of boiling salted water.
I now added some white wine to the mushrooms and continued
to cook them to let the wine reduce. A nob of butter was added and when the
seasoning was checked it was ready for the pasta. This was drained and added to
the pan with a little of its water. And it was time to eat—with some Parmesan
cheese grated over it.
Apart from the fact that my pappardelle was thick this was
quick and easy to prepare and tasty. A good quick comfort dish.
Taste: ✔✔✔✔
Ease of
cooking: ✔✔✔✔
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