Categories: Pasta

Ingredients

• 115g Italian 00 flour
• Maldon sea salt
• olive oil
• 1 whole eggs plus 1 yolks
• 250g mixed wild mushrooms
• 1 1/2 shallots , finely chopped
• 1 1/2 garlic cloves , bruised
• a few sprigs thyme
• butter
• 25g rocket
• parmesan shavings, to serve

Directions

1. I make my pasta in a food processor: it takes minutes and makes a lovely, pliable dough. Put the flour, a good pinch of salt and a slug of olive oil in the bowl, and add the eggs, keeping back one yolk. I do this because different flours have different absorbing properties, so I always give myself a margin to add liquid if necessary. Pulse the food processor until the mixture looks like large couscous. Pinch a handful to see if it holds together as a dough. (Add the extra yolk now if you think it needs it.) Once you have the right consistency, tip it onto a work surface and bring it together with your hands, wrap it in clingfilm and let it rest in the fridge for at least half an hour.

2. Flour the work surface generously and then use a rolling pin to roll the dough into a flat rectangle that will fit into the slot on a pasta machine. You can keep on rolling the pasta by hand, but I wouldn’t recommend it – you need a lot of welly for the silky, almost see-through results you get with a machine. My Imperia professional pasta maker is a bit of a monster, but you can get a domestic model from the same range quite cheaply. Roll the dough through the machine on the thickest setting twice, then keep on passing the dough through the rollers as you drop down the thickness in stages, passing the dough through twice at each stage. You’ll end up with a long sheet, which is easy to cut into pappardelle, spaghetti, tagliatelle or as here, squares. Pasta machines usually come with a set of cutters. Don’t worry about getting the shape perfect – you’ve made it, so you want it to look a bit rustic.

3. This is a chefs’ trick we use at Claridge’s – we blanch our pasta in boiling water for 10 seconds, then cool it in iced water and toss it in olive oil to keep it separate. (When you toss the pasta through the sauce or, as here, a butter emulsion to reheat, it will be perfectly cooked.)

4. Don’t wash any type of mushroom because they will soak up the liquid. wild ones can house a lot of grit, so use a mushroom brush, or a soft toothbrush to get rid of it, or just wipe with damp kitchen paper if they’re not too bad. Slice the larger ones. You need to get your pan really hot, as you want to get colour on the mushrooms, not stew them (as they give off a lot of water). Add a good slug of olive oil, then throw in the mushrooms and get them coloured. Add the shallots, garlic and thyme, and toss really well for a couple of minutes. Now add a knob of butter and a couple of handfuls of rocket and toss to wilt. Take out the garlic and throw it away.

5. The easiest way to finish the pasta is to revive it in a butter emulsion. This will reheat and enrich it, ready for serving. Bring 4 tbsp water to the boil in a wide pan, then whisk in 4 tbsp butter and a little salt. Slip in the pasta sheets and reheat – a minute or so will do. Serve 4 sheets per person, layered with the mushrooms. Finish with some fresh parmesan shavings.

Email to a friend | Print this recipe | Back