Cavatelli,
morel mushrooms & Escargot
4 oz fresh cavatelli (process below)
9 ea cleaned and blanched fava beans not split (Next page)
12 pieces of ¼ in diced carrots. (Next Page)
1.5 each roasted cippolini onions in ¼’s (Next page)
1/3 cups seared morel mushrooms (two page)
¼ cup 70% reduced veal stock(pg # coming)
7 each cooked snails (Next Page)
2 each nubs of butter (equivalent shown in two pages)
2 tbls chopped flat leaf parsley
A few squirts of madeira and sherry vinegar
salt and pepper for
taste.
Zest of lemon
2 tbls parmesan cheese and chopped parsley
pinch of brunoise shallots and garlic.
For Cavatelli Dough
16 oz. Ricotta
Cheese
2 Eggs
1 Pinch
of Salt
3 Cups (1 pound)
All Purpose Flour
1 each nutmeg
microplained into flour
1.Pour 2 1/2 cups
of the flour and nutmeg into a bowl and make a well in the middle.
2. Drop the 2
eggs and the ricotta cheese into the well.
3. Using a
circular motion, slowly incorporate the flour into the eggs and cheese.
4. Once all of
the flour has been combined with the eggs and cheese, knead the dough together
until a soft, but not sticky dough is formed. It can depend on the day,
but if the dough still remains sticky add more flour.
5. Wrap the dough
in plastic wrap and let rest for at least a half an hour.
Formation
1. Take your ball
of dough and divide it into quarters.
2. Working with
one quarter at a time, lay the dough out on a lightly floured surface and
divide it into quarters again.
3. Take a piece
of the divided dough about a 16th of the recipe and roll it into a
long tube about 1/4 inch in diameter.
4. Divide the
tube into pieces 1 inch long with either a pastry cutter or a knife.
5. Using the edge
of a butter knife or bench knife, holding your desired utensil at a 45 degree
angle, press on each piece of dough and pull across the length of it.
You’ll find that the motion causes the dough to roll up the edge of the blade.
6. When you are
done with each cavatelli, have a lightly floured pan near by so you can toss
them in and repeat the process.
For Escargot
Get fresh snails if possible if not use a can.
Start a court bouillon
(Fennel, onion, carrot, celery, leeks, parsley, bay leaves, thyme, peppercorns,
water, lemon) and bring to a boil, then reducing to a simmer.
While waiting for the boil wash off about 36 to 40 snails by
soaking them in ice water for about 5 min agitating frequently , pull the
snails out of the water and transfer into another pot of ice water and
repeating until water baths are clear and snails are clean. Court bouillon
should be at a simmer by now, placing a large metal bowl with your snails, in a
larger bowl with an ice bath in it, pour simmering court bouillon over the
snails, give them a stir once covered in liquid, let cool completely and remove
snails, strain the liquid and reserve. Now using the back side of a small
pairing knife pull gently of the heads of the snail till you can grab with your
fingers, twisting it out as they curl inside of the shell. Place in a small
container and cover with reserved liquid.
For carrots
Using bunched carrots wash thoroughly, cut into workable sizes approximately 3 inch
logs cut into ¼’s lengthwise depending on thickness of carrot. Your main goal
is to make sure the carrots are all about the same size, reason being they will
all cook about the same amount of time.
After cutting your carrots, toss them in a bowl, add some
salt and some fresh ground black pepper, 1 tsp chopped thyme, coat the veggies
in olive oil and lay out on a sheet tray in an even layer and roast in the oven
at about 375 degrees Fahrenheit 12 to 15 minutes, stir and continue to roast
until some color has been achieved on the carrot.
For Cippolini onions.
In a pan add 2 tbl canola oil, bring to a light smoke, add
enough onions to make an even layer over the bottom of the pan. Cook in the pan until the first side has developed
some caramelization, rotate each onion onto the uncooked side, wait for the
same caramelizeation now add a few tablespoons of sherry wine and deglaze with
veal stock cooking until the onions are soft, pull out of the liquid and let
cool on a plate. Reduce the rest of the veal stock and sherry until almost set
and reserve for later use.
For Fava beans
Stating with the fresh beans, pop open the pod and clear the
beans with a gentle finger trying not to break the bean. Bring 1 quart water a bay leave, 3 sprigs of
thyme, 1 sliced shallot up to a boil and add 3 tbls salt. Have 1 cup of fava
beans already prepped for blanching. Add the 1 cup of fava beans to the boiling
quart of salt water for about 1 min 30 seconds. The bean will still be in a pod
so peel that away and try a bean. There should be a small bite in the middle
but cooked almost all the way through. Once cooked, drop in an ice bath to
shock the cooking process.
For Mushrooms
¼ cup shallots brunoise
2 tbls brunoise garlic
5 sprigs of Chopped thyme
¼ cups canola oil
1 Tbls madeira
5 nubs butter (about 3 tbl)
About 1 pound fresh mushrooms
Usually all mushrooms are dirty and need cleaning. How I
process mushrooms is fill a deep container full of cold water and crushed ice
if you have the availability, fill a second container full of cold water. Add
the mushrooms to the ice water mix and agitate gently not to break up the
mushroom, count to 15 while agitating. Once you have hit 15 let stand for another
30 seconds, so the dirt and sut will sink to the bottom of the container. After
30 seconds pulling from the bottom of the mush room float if you will, transfer
the mushrooms to the second tub, agitate again gently. Dump out the first tub,
clean out the sink and refill the tub with fresh clean cold water and repeat
the process until water is clean and clear. Once water is clean and clear and
mushrooms are clean, remove them from the water and lay them out on a towel to
dry, 1 day is preferable.
In a large flat bottom pan add oil and heat till light
smoke. Add shallots and garlic and sauté until translucent over medium high
heat once cooked add mushrooms and continue to cook. There will be a release of
a lot of water from the mushrooms, continue to cook until the water has
evaporated and the mushrooms are starting to fry a little, at this point add
the thyme and madeira cook until madeira is absorbed add the butter and cook
until the butter is frothy and toasted add salt, pull the mushrooms and let
drain on a towel. This process is good for any dark mushrooms, crimini, hen of
the woods, morel, black trumpet etc.
To assemble the dish
all of these ingredients need to be completed as shown above
for optimal flavor.
Set a pot of salted water for cooking pasta. Bring to a
boil. Set a strainer in the water to catch the pasta when added to the water.
In a medium sized sauté pan bring up some oil to a light
smoke, add the shallots and garlic cooking until soft, add the mushrooms,
carrots, and cipollini onions, cook till hot deglaze with madeira, add veal
stock and fava beans and snails, at this point drop pasta in the boiling water
with the colander, cook till tender. Now the sauce should be reduced by about
70%. Add nubs of butter and mount in, toss in the pasta and parsley into the
mixture and cook till glazed and coated, adjust flavor with sherry vinegar.
