Dark Tan Pasta
Chestnut flour works quite well in pasta. The proportion you'll want is 1/3 chestnut flour and 2/3 white flour; figure the usual number of eggs.
Another option to make light brown pasta is a 50-50 mixture of whole wheat and regular flours.
A third, lavish option is to use dried porcini:
- 7/8 pound (400 g, or 3 1/3 cups) flour
- 60 g (about a packed cup) dried porcini
- 3 eggs
- A pinch of salt
Steep the porcini for 10 minutes in a small amount of boiling water, then drain them well, reserving the liquid. Blend the porcini. Strain the liquid, which may contain sand, into a pan, add the porcini, and heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture has thickened. Let the mushrooms cool, and combine them with the other ingredients when you make the pasta. This pasta will be delightful with unsalted butter and a dusting of cheese, or a simple cream sauce.
Purple Pasta
The perfect thing for tifosi Viola, fans of Florence's soccer team, which has worn purple ever since the laundry service made a mistake with their red jerseys in the 20s...
- 7/8 pound (400 g, or 3 1/3 cups) flour
- A fairly large beet (you can buy it ready cooked)
- 2 eggs
- A pinch of salt
Cook the beet if need be, skin it if need be, dice it, blend it, put the paste in a fine muslin bag, and squeeze out as much of the juice as you can. Combine the paste with the remaining ingredients and make the pasta. This pasta tends to crack as it dries, so use it as soon after you've rolled the sheet as possible.
Pasta Embossed with Leaves
Gualtiero Marchesi, Italy's most respected chef, did these on a cooking show a number of years ago, and they are most impressive. Use them to make large ravioli, of the kind that are simple squares whose edges are tamped down around the filling, and serve them simply, with unsalted butter and grated cheese, lest the sauce cover the pattern. He used a hand-operated pasta machine to do the pressing.
Make pasta following the standard recipe given above and roll it out to the standard thickness. Next, take well washed sprigs of parsley or other leafy herbs and pinch away the stems so only the leafy crowns remain. Cut the pasta into strips about twice as wide as the leaves, brush one side of a strip with a little cold water, and lay down a row of leaves, separating them by about a half an inch. Cover with a second strip and run the sandwich through the pasta machine. The leaves will pattern the pasta.
Continue making strips and running them through the pasta machine until all is used up.
Finally, a couple of specific pasta shapes:
Cavatelli
These are Puglian. How to make them, and a tomato-and-ruchetta (arugola) sauce for them.
Orecchiette
So are these. How to make them, and several sauce suggestions.
Buon Appetito!
Kyle Phillips
