Recipes Courtesy of Scott Conant – Scarpetta Restaurants
From "The Scarpetta Cookbook" (published by Houghton Mifflin Harcout Publishing), available in stores nationwide.
Serves 4
Ingredients:
• 3 large egg yolks
• ¼ cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese • 1 teaspoon preserved black truffles, chopped • Kosher salt • Extra-virgin olive oil • 4 ounces guanciale, cut into matchstick-size strips • 8 ounces wild mushrooms, such as chanterelles or blue foots, cut into 1-inch pieces • 8 ounces (4-6 spears) asparagus, peeled, tips cut off and cut in half lengthwise, and spears cut on a sharp bias ⅛ inch thick • ½ cup fresh peas, blanched • 12 ounces Fresh Pasta, cut into tagliatelle (recipe below) • ½ cup freshly grated Grana Padano cheese • 6 tablespoons (3 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
- Recipe: In a double boiler (off the heat) or a bowl that can fit over a simmering saucepan of water, whisk together the egg yolks, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and preserved truffles. Heat the water for the double boiler or heat water in the saucepan over medium heat, but keep the eggs off the heat for now.
- Meanwhile, bring a large pot of well-salted water to a boil.
- Heat 3 tablespoons olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the guanciale and cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly crisped, about 2 minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the asparagus and peas, and cook to heat through, 2 to 3 minutes. Take the pan off the heat.
- Cook the pasta until pliable but still firm to the bite. Transfer the pasta to the sauté pan (a spider or a large wire skimmer works well for this) along with 1 ½ cups of the pasta cooking water (reserve another 1 cup of the pasta cooking water) and cook, tossing occasionally, until the pasta is tender.
- Meanwhile, put the egg yolk mixture over the simmering water in the double boiler or saucepan. Add ½ cup of the reserved pasta cooking water and whisk until the mixture thickens to the thickness of melted ice cream.
- Add the Grana Padano and butter to the sauté pan and toss gently but well. Divide the pasta among wide, shallow serving bowls. Use an immersion blender to froth the egg mixture; pour 2 to 3 tablespoons of it – you want about three-quarters of it to be foamy and the rest to be liquid – over each bowl of pasta. Serve immediately.
Fresh Pasta Ingredients:
• 3 cups "00" flour, plus more as needed
• 1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt • 11 large egg yolks • 3 large eggs • 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- Fresh Pasta Recipe: In a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, combine the flour and salt on low speed. Add the egg yolk, eggs, and olive oil and continue to mix on low speed. Once the flour is incorporated, increase the speed to medium-low and mix/knead the dough for 5 minutes.
- Lightly flour your work surface. Dump the dough onto the surface and continue to knead for a few more minutes. At this point, the dough may look a little dry, which is fine. Wrap the dough well in plastic wrap and let it rest in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour before rolling it. This rest allows the flour to be fully absorbed by the wet ingredients for a smooth, tender dough (You can make the dough up to 1 day ahead of rolling it; keep it refrigerated).
- To roll and shape the dough, set the pasta machine on its widest setting. Cut the pasta dough into 4 pieces. Work with one piece at a time and wrap the others in plastic wrap to prevent them from drying out. Very lightly flour the dough and run it through the pasta machine twice. Fold it in half and run it through again. Do that a couple more times; this serves as a final kneading. Set the machine to the next level of thickness and run the dough through again. Keep running the dough through the machine, adjusting the rollers to a thinner setting each time, until the sheet is the thickness you want or the recipe directs. Lightly flour the dough throughout the process if it is sticking; the additional flour added at this point will not make it tough. (If the finished sheets of pasta have a lot of flour on them, brush it off using a brush with dark bristles so you can see any stray bristles should they come off on the pasta).
- For tagliatelle: Lightly flour a rimmed baking sheet. Roll the dough into sheets about 1/16 inch thick (the last or second-to-last setting on most pasta machines). Trim the sheets until they measure 12 to 13 inches long. Tightly roll each sheet, from short end to short end, then use a sharp chef’s knife to cut ⅜-inch-wide ribbons. Unroll and toss with a little flour, then gather into nests by wrapping portions of the ribbons of dough around your hand. Dust the nests with a little more flour, place on the baking sheet, and freeze until hard. (Once the tagliatelle is rock-hard, it can be transferred to a freezing bag or other airtight container and kept frozen for up to 1 month).
Scarpetta Signature San Remo Cocktail Ingredients:
• 2 ounces Carpano Antica
• 1 ounce Campari • ¼ ounce St-Germain • ¼ ounce Maker’s Mark • 1 ounce orange juice • Juice from ½ lemon and ½ lime
- Scarpetta Signature San Remo Cocktail Recipe: Combine above ingredients in a mixing glass.
- Top the mixing glass with ice, shake, strain, and pour into a rocks glass.
- Garnish with an orange twist.
For more information on Scott, and his four Scarpetta restaurants, go to www.scottconant.com.