Posts Tagged ‘pasta’

As you may recall, last week’s peas + centrifuge experiment resulted in three stages of pea: pea solids, pea butter and pea water.  This week, I’ve found a use for all three components in my recipe for Pea Ravioli.  The picture above shows three of the delightfully green little pasta pouches splashing into a “sauce” of pea water.  Inside each is a dollop of pure pea butter, shown in the photo below.  Note that this is the natural color of the pea butter.  It’s amazing stuff, and hopefully that shot will give you a sense of its wonderful viscosity. 

To make the pasta, the first thing I needed was pea flour.  I’ve seen pea flour used as a substitute or partial-substitute in baking recipes before, so I figured it should work fine for pasta as well.  I spread the pea solids into an 1/8” even layer on a silicone baking sheet and dehydrated it at 135F overnight.  Amazingly, the pea solids lost at least 2/3 of their mass and volume.  I guess a few more Gs in the centrifuge would have helped expel the remaining moisture. 

I ground the dehydrated pea solids in two stages: first, I dumped them into the Blendtec and let them whirl on high for a few minutes.  It produced a pretty fine powder, but I decided to do a second milling in the coffee grinder (which I don’t use for coffee).  The final texture was finer than cornmeal but not quite as fine as flour. The photo below shows the pea powder at substantial magnification.  The total yield from 3lbs of peas was 200g of pea powder. 

Next, it was time to make the dough.  I had no idea what the properties of pea flour would be compared to wheat flour, so I approached making pea pasta like making gluten-free dough… except I added 25% all-purpose flour.  The dough finally came together after adding one egg + one egg yolk, about 6g each of xanthan and guar gum, roughly 150g of water and 75g of olive oil, plus a little salt. 

I’m not providing an exact recipe since I eventually gave up on precise measurements and just kept adding stuff until the dough looked right.  When I could finally get it to pass through my pasta roller on the 4th setting without breaking apart, I called it good and stamped out a few ravioli filled with pea butter.  The pasta was delicious and had the unmistakable, pure, vibrant flavor of peas.  Unlike most ravioli, the flavor wasn’t just in the filling.  The dough itself packed plenty of pea punch.  The addition of a soft cheese, like a mild goat or perhaps even a creamy brie would certainly be welcome for the filling, if you’re longing for a little something extra.  I didn’t try cooking the pasta directly in the pea water, but that might be a delightful flavor boost as well.

I’m also planning to try a pea version of matzo ball soup (a childhood favorite) made from balls of pea dough and served in a pea water broth.  If you’ve got other ideas for dishes with extreme peaness, please leave ‘em in the comments. 

If you caught my post last week on smoking your own salt, you learned how easy it is to turn ordinary salt into an extraordinary seasoning.  But did you know that you can pull off the same trick with flour?  In this recipe, I’ve smoked Semolina flour – the most common kind used for pasta making.  The finished pasta takes on a subtly spicy smoke flavor and is a great match for Morel mushrooms. 

(more…)

Slow-roasted cherry tomatoes are really the star of this dish.  The French Laundry uses tomato confit in many of its preparations.  My method isn’t quite as intricate as theirs, but the intent is the same: to sweeten and intensify the flavor of the tomato.  The result is a delicious variation on your otherwise ordinary pasta night.  After baking the tomatoes, to really make them confit, store them in an airtight jar immersed in olive oil for later uses.

Makes: Special pasta night for 2
Total kitchen time: 1 hour (15 minutes working time)

Shopping list:

• 1/2 lb. cherry or grape tomatoes
• 4 oz. (about 2 cups) penne pasta
• 1/4 cup kalamata olives, pitted
• 1/4 cup green olives, pitted
• 1/2 cup feta cheese, cut into 1/2” cubes
• 1 tbsp. freshly chopped oregano
• ooks&fgbp

1. Rinse and pat dry the tomatoes.  Slice in half through the stem end.  In a small bowl, gently toss the tomatoes with about 1 tsp. kosher salt and enough good olive oil to coat.
2. Arrange the tomatoes in an even layer, cut side up, on a baking sheet.  Bake at 250°F for 1 hour.  This is a good time to use your toaster oven, if you’ve got one.
3. About 30 minutes into the tomato roasting, bring a very large pot of water to a boil.  Even if you’re only cooking for two, use at least a gallon of water if you can.  All the Italian chefs say we need to, though they may be in the pocket of Big Water.  Salt the water.
4. Cook the pasta to al-dente (10-12 minutes, check the package for directions) and drain well.  Toss together the pasta, feta, oregano and olives with a little more (good) olive oil, salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Plate, and add the confit-ed tomatoes on top. 

For real tomato confit, Thomas Keller suggest that we blanch, peel, and seed the tomatoes before baking.  If you’ve got the extra time on your hands, please go ahead and report back.  I should be just about done with dinner by then!