Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking - Marcella Hazan [110]
Pasta Wrappers Filled with Spinach Fettuccine, Porcini Mushrooms, and Ham
BEFORE the student riots of the late 1970s demolished it, Al Cantunzein, in Bologna, was probably the greatest pasta restaurant that has ever existed. Among the thirty or forty pastas it served, the most sublime was called scrigno di venere, Venus’s jewel case. The “case” was formed by a small handkerchief-sized wrapper of yellow pasta pulled around a collection of edible “jewels”: green fettuccine, ham, wild mushrooms, truffles.
The recipe, while not particularly troublesome from the point of view of technique, requires a substantial amount of organization to assemble. Reading it through carefully first will help you put it together smoothly later.
For 6 servings
FOR THE FETTUCCINE
Homemade green pasta dough, made by the machine method, OR by the hand-rolled method, using 2 large eggs, ⅓ package frozen leaf spinach OR 6 ounces fresh spinach, salt, and approximately 1½ cups unbleached flour
TO SAUCE THE FETTUCCINE
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons chopped shallots OR onion
Two small packets OR 2 ounces dried porcini mushrooms, reconstituted
Filtered water from the mushroom soak
⅔ cup unsmoked boiled ham, cut into ¼-inch strips
1 cup heavy whipping cream
⅓ cup freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese
OPTIONAL: ½ ounce (or more if affordable) fresh OR canned white truffle
THE PASTA WRAPPERS
Homemade yellow pasta dough made by the machine method, OR by the hand-rolled method, using 3 large eggs and approximately 1⅔ cups unbleached flour
THE BÉCHAMEL SAUCE
Béchamel Sauce, using 3 cups milk, 6 tablespoons butter, 4½ tablespoons flour, and ¼ teaspoon salt
Salt
6 gratin pans, preferably earthenware, about 4½ inches in diameter
Butter for greasing the pans Wooden toothpicks
1. Make green pasta dough either by machine, or by hand. Cut it into fettuccine, either using the wide-grooved cutters of the pasta machine, or cutting it by hand. See the notes "Cutting flat pasta" and "Cutting handmade pasta" for complete details. Spread the fettuccine loosely on a counter lined with clean, dry, cloth towels.
2. To make the sauce: Put 3 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan or small sauté pan together with the chopped onion or shallot, turn on the heat to medium, and cook the onion or shallot, stirring, until it becomes colored a pale gold. Add the reconstituted dried mushrooms and the filtered water from their soak. Cook at a simmer until all the mushroom liquid has evaporated.
3. Add the ham, cook half a minute or so, stirring once or twice to coat it well, then add the heavy cream. Cook until the cream has thickened somewhat, then turn off the heat and set aside.
4. Make the pasta wrappers: Prepare the yellow pasta dough by machine, or by hand, rolling it out as thin as it will come by either method.
5. If making pasta by machine: You must join all the pasta strips to make a single large sheet. Lightly moisten the edge of one strip with water, then place the edge of another strip over it, overlapping it by very little, about ⅛ inch. Run your thumb along the whole length of the edge, pressing down hard on the two edges to bond them together. Smooth the bumps out with a pass or two of a rolling pin. Repeat the operation with another pasta strip, continuing until all the dough has been joined to form a single sheet.
If making pasta by hand: When you have rolled out a single thin sheet of pasta proceed to the next step.
6. Lay the sheet of dough flat on a counter lined with dry, cloth towels, and let it dry for about 10 minutes.
7. To make the wrappers, you must cut the pasta into disks 8 inches in diameter. Look for a pot cover of that size, or a plate, or use a compass to trace 6 eight-inch disks on the pasta dough. Detach the disks from the pasta sheet, spreading them on the cloth towels. (The leftover pasta can be cut and dried to cook in soup on another occasion.)
8. Prepare the béchamel sauce, making it rather thin, the consistency of sour cream. When done, keep it warm in the upper half