You just know that dinner was a success when, after completely cleaning your plate, you’re standing over the skillet sopping up the last remnants of the truffle butter with thick slices of bread.
Welcome to my fabulous dinner!
When Victor was in London last week, he brought me home some goodies from Carluccio’s. Carluccio’s is a chain of Italian restaurants and shops in the UK with a dozen or so in the greater London area. One of the goodies was a jar of Burro al Tartufo – Truffle Butter. I’ve been looking at it in the cabinet all week, trying to think of what I wanted to make with it. It came to me last night. I didn’t want to make anything with it – I wanted Victor to make homemade pasta and use it.
And he did.
Not only did he make homemade pasta, he made half of it with squid ink. I have died and gone to gastronomic heaven!
This was just one of the most fun – and delicious – dinners I’ve had in a while. The sauce was simple – the melted Truffle Butter with a pinch of crushed red pepper, a sprinkling of parsley, and a shred of pecorino romano.
The pasta was amazing. Victor has the pasta-making down to a science. I don’t think I will ever make it, because he does it so well in such a short amount of time. It is just perfect.
The basic recipe is:
- 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 2 large eggs
- 2 large egg yolks
- up to 1 tablespoon water, if necessary
Instructions
On a clean work surface, mound flour and form a well in the center. Add egg and egg yolk to the well. Using a fork, gently break up yolks and slowly incorporate flour from inside rim of well. Continue until liquid is absorbed, then knead for 10 minutes. Wrap dough tightly in plastic and let rest for 30 minutes.
Divide dough into 3 pieces. Cover 2 pieces with plastic wrap. Flatten remaining dough piece so that it will fit through the rollers of a pasta machine.
Set rollers of pasta machine at the widest setting, then feed pasta through rollers 3 or 4 times, folding and turning pasta until it is smooth and the width of the machine.
Roll pasta through machine, decreasing the setting, one notch at a time (do not fold or turn pasta), until pasta sheet is scant 1/16 inch thick.
Cut sheet in half widthwise; dust both sides of sheets with flour. Layer sheets between floured pieces of parchment or wax paper. Cover with paper and repeat with remaining dough.
With the short end of 1 pasta sheet facing you, loosely fold up sheet, folding sheet over two or three times from short ends toward the center. With a large chefs knife, cut folded sheet into ribbons, a scant 1/4 inch wide. Unroll strips and lightly dust with flour; spread on a lightly floured baking sheet. Repeat with remaining pasta sheets.
To cook the tagliatelle, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook until tender, about 3 minutes. Drain pasta, transfer to a large serving bowl and toss with sauce.
Victor took half of the recipe and added about a half-teaspoon of squid ink and kneaded it in. It stained his hands and the counter, but washed up quickly with a bit of soap and water.
After cooking and draining, he tossed it into the skillet with the truffle butter and mixed everything well.
After it was plated, he added just a sprinkling more of parsley and cheese.
I want him to go back to London and buy more of this stuff!
Then, again… we are heading to Italy in June… I wonder what the limit is for bringing foodstuffs back into the country… And I wonder how much I can have shipped…