Recipes: Tagliatelle all’emiliana | Cappelletti romagnoli

It’s an Italian job this week, with recipes served up by Mattia at Hotel Missoni

Tagliatelle all’emiliana (Tagliatelle with traditional pork ragu). Serves 6

Ingredients

Fresh made tagliatelle

1kg minced pork shoulder

200g minced prosciutto

500ml of water

240g tomato puree

100g finely chopped white onion

100g finely chopped carrot

100g finely chopped celery

150ml red wine

50g cold diced butter

10g chopped rosemary

Grated parmesan cheese

Method

Heat oil in a pan and add all of your finely chopped vegetables. Gently mix them around until they are slightly softened and golden. Then add the prosciutto and minced pork.

Add the red wine and let it reduce while adding the tomato puree. Bring this all to the boil and turn it down to simmer.

Let it cook gently for about two to three hours and add water if necessary to ensure that it does not dry out.

Cook the tagliatelle in abundant salted boiling water for few minutes or until they rise to the top.

In a separate pan melt half of the cold diced butter with the chopped rosemary, add the ragu and heat up. Finally, add the pasta and the remaining cold diced butter and toss around for few minutes until the butter has melted. Serve with parmesan cheese grated on top.

Cappelletti romagnoli. Serves 6

Ingredients

1.5l of chicken stock

200g ricotta

200g grated pecorino dolce

50g grated parmesan cheese

Nutmeg

3 whole eggs

3 large eggs plus 2 extra (large) egg yolks (all at room temperature)

Salt

500g of flour, sieved

Pinch of salt

Pasta machine

Method

To make the pasta, sieve the flour into a clean bowl, then turn it out into a mound and make a well in the middle. Sprinkle the salt into the well, and then crack in the eggs.

Have a bowl of water for your hands to help bring the dough together, as it may become stubborn towards the end of kneading.

To begin, break the yolks with the fingertips of one hand, and then move your fingers in a circular motion, gradually incorporating the flour, until you have worked in enough to start bringing it together in a ball. Begin to work the ball of dough, pushing it with the heel of your hand, then folding the top back on itself, turning it a little clockwise, and repeating for around ten minutes. Continue doing so until the dough is springy, but still feels quite firm and difficult to work.

Divide the dough into two balls, wrap each in a damp cloth and rest for about an hour before using.

Roll the first ball of dough with a rolling pin (keep the rest covered in the damp cloth) until it is about 1cm thick, and will go through the pasta machine comfortably.

Put the machine on the thickest setting to start with, then feed the piece of pasta through the machine turning the handle with one hand, and supporting the dough as it comes through with the other. Change to the second setting, and put it through again. Repeat another 2-3 times, taking the setting down one each time. Don’t worry if the pasta appears slightly streaky, this should disappear as you carry on rolling it.

Next, fold the strip of pasta back on itself, put the machine back onto the first setting and put the pasta through. Repeat 3-4 more times, again taking the setting down one each time, and you will see that the pasta begins to sheen. As it begins to get longer, you will find that you have to pull it very gently.

Now cut your strip in half. Keep one half covered in a damp cloth, then fold the length of the other strip into three, bringing one end in and the other over the top of that, so that the pasta is the same width as the machine. Roll it with the rolling pin, so it is no more than half a centimetre thick, then put the machine back on to the first setting and feed the pasta through – the opposite way this time. The idea of changing direction is to put equal elasticity and strength throughout the pasta. Keep feeding it through this way, taking it down two or three settings as you go.

Mix the three cheeses together and add the eggs. Adjust the seasoning with the salt and nutmeg.

Finally, fold the pasta back on itself, then put the machine back onto the first setting, and take it down again through the settings until it is about 0.5mm thick. Cut the pasta in 5cm squares, place some of the filling in the centre of each square and brush the edge with some eggs (make sure not the use to much egg or the pasta will not close properly). Close the square in the cappelletti shape.

Bring 1 to 1.5 litres of good chicken stock to the boil in a large pan and cook the cappelletti in the stock until it rises to the top. Serve immediately with the stock.