Early morning ..as the sun rises in our kitchen...In my PJ's.. before life starts to unfold..
The above is a hint..of what made me think all night... Friday night... about a pasta I saw on a lovely blog that I have gratefully now found two of our favorite Italian pasta dishes in the last year~
While in Italy..I bought 2 packages of Croxetti~
Pretty stamped pasta..I could not resist it... and wondered where I could find it again back here..?
Then Friday ..I stumbled upon The Italian Dish post..
Oh My Goodness..
Her post had me Googling the precious stamp..I did find one.. but it's a faraway project..maybe one day..I was sorry to not be able to try my hand at it..But far into the night....
I remembered my cookie stamp..
I took out my ravioli cutter and my little cookie/biscuit/scone cutter and the stamp..and lo and behold it worked..
I didn't have the romance of using one of the Master's tools.. nor the pleasure of ..well you know that feeling when you have the right tool to honor the method? No I didn't have that.. but they turned out cute enough..and her recipe for the pasta is delish w/ the white wine..
and the sauce..
Well my husband..who loves olive oil..pine nuts garlic and basil(a fresh plant brought over by a friend as a surprise Friday evening)..
Said.."this is delicious" "so delicious"....I had to agree:) Melt in you mouth freshness.
I am so happy to have found this recipe..
It's not an olive tree..the mold isn't wood..it didn't travel from Italy .. it was just a small cookie mold that was w/ my cookie cutters..The design became subtle after cooking the pasta..and that's why I truly think the REAL tool is necessary..But still..
La Recette~
Courtesy Of The Italian Dish~
Corzetti with Parmesan, Pine Nuts and Herbs
It is common in Liguria to add a little wine to the pasta dough.
makes about 90 corzetti
Dough:
1 cup all purpose flour or Italian 00 flour
4 egg yolks
1/4 cup white wine
Sauce:
1/3 cup olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced or grated
1/8 cup pine nuts, plain or toasted*
handful of chopped herbs (parsley, basil, etc.)
freshly ground black pepper, salt to taste
freshly grated parmigiano reggiano cheese
Make pasta dough: Place flour on workspace and make a well in the center. Place the egg yolks in the well and beat lightly with fork. Add white wine to beaten eggs and mix with the fork. Slowly incorporate the flour with the fork until a dough forms. Knead and add flour until the dough is not sticky any more. A pastry scraper helps a lot. This may take a little more flour - you need to just go by the feel of the dough. Wrap in floured plastic and let rest at room temperature for 15 - 30 minutes. Cut in half and take each piece and run it through pasta rollers on the widest setting. Fold in thirds and run through several more times. Adjust rollers to next thinnest setting and pass pasta through. Pass through until you get to the thickness you like - usually #4 or #5 for corzetti. If you make the pasta thinner, using #5, you will be able to make a few more corzetti. Lay pasta sheets on floured counter and cover with towel.
Cut out discs of pasta with your corzetti base and lay on sheet of parchment paper on a baking sheet. You can take your scraps and run them through the pasta rollers again to get the maximum number of corzetti. Repeat until all pasta has been used and you have 80 - 100 discs of pasta.
Stamp corzetti: Turn corzetti base so design is right side up. Place one pasta disc on the base. Take the corzetti stamp and press down. Remove pasta disc to parchment. If pasta sticks to stamp, lightly flour. Repeat until all discs are stamped.
Place corzetti in boiling, salted water and cook two minutes. Lift with a strainer and dress with sauce.
(You can place the corzetti in the freezer on the baking sheets and then put them in plastic bags and keep in the freezer, if you like. No need to thaw to cook them.)
Sauce: Heat olive oil in a skillet and saute garlic for one minute. Add pine nuts and herbs. Add pepper and salt to taste. When corzetti are done cooking, lift them out with a strainer and place right into skillet. Toss with sauce. Place pasta in a serving bowl and toss with as much freshly grated parmesan cheese as you like.
* To toast pine nuts (this brings out their flavor a little more) place in a small, dry skillet and toast over medium heat until lightly golden.
My Notes..There is no way to improve on this dish~Apart from having one of the beautiful tools she shows us..and that you can find at that store in SanFrancisco..The customer service was excellent~The Corti Brothers~What an heirloom ~
All links provided here were provided first at The Italian Dish..
Many Thanks .