Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking - Marcella Hazan [111]
9. Place a bowl of cold water near the range and bring 4 quarts of water to a boil in a soup pot. Add 1 tablespoon salt, and as the water resumes boiling, drop in 2 of the pasta disks. When they have cooked for no more than half a minute, retrieve them with a colander spoon, or other spoon, dip them in the bowl of cold water, then rinse them under cold running water, wringing them gently, and spread them out flat on the cloth towel. Repeat the operation until you have done all 6 pasta disks.
10. Turn the heat on to low under the mushroom and ham sauce, stirring it once or twice while you are reheating it. If using canned truffles, add the juice from the can to the sauce.
11. Add more water to the soup pot to replenish what has boiled away, and when the water comes to a lively boil, drop in the green fettuccine. Drain the pasta when slightly underdone, a little firmer than al dente. Toss it immediately with the ham and mushroom sauce. Add the grated Parmesan, and toss again. If using truffle, slice it very thin over the pasta; if you don’t have a truffle slicer, use a swiveling-blade peeler or a mandoline. Divide the fettuccine into 6 equal portions, keeping to one side 6 individual strands.
12. Preheat oven to 450°.
13. Thickly smear the bottom of the gratin pans with butter. Spread some béchamel sauce on a large platter. Place one of the pasta disks over the béchamel, rotating it to coat all its underside. Thinly spread a little more béchamel on its top side. Place the disk in a gratin pan, centering it and letting its edges hang over the sides.
Put one of the 6 portions of fettuccine in the center of the disk, making sure it has its share of sauce. Keep the fettuccine loose, don’t tamp them down. Mix in a little béchamel.
Pick up the edges of the disk and fold them toward the center with a spiral movement, thus sealing the pasta wrapper. Fasten the folds at the top with a toothpick, then wrap one of the fettuccine strands you had set aside around the toothpick.
Repeat the entire procedure until you have filled and sealed all 6 wrappers.
14. Place the gratin pans on the uppermost rack of the preheated oven. Bake until a light brown crust forms on the edge of the wrapper folds, about 8 minutes. Do not bake longer than 10 minutes.
15. Transfer each wrapper from the gratin pan to a soup plate, lifting carefully with 2 metal spatulas. Remove the toothpick without dislodging the single strand of fettuccine. Allow to rest for at least 5 minutes before serving.
Ahead-of-time note You can prepare the wrappers several hours in advance up to this point. They can be done in the morning for the evening, but not overnight, and they are not to be refrigerated.
Pizzoccheri
Pizzoccheri are short, broad, taupe-colored noodles made principally of soft buckwheat flour. They are a specialty of Valtellina, on the Swiss border, where in cool, Alpine valleys buckwheat grows well. Because buckwheat is so soft, it must be stiffened with some wheat flour, in the proportions given below.
As you will see when you follow the recipe, the preparation of pizzoccheri has three parts: The pasta is cooked along with potatoes and vegetables, it is then tossed with sage- and garlic-scented butter and topped with sliced, soft cheese, and finally briefly gratinéed in the oven.
The vegetable may be either Savoy cabbage or Swiss chard stalks. My preference is for the Swiss chard. Only the stalks go into this recipe, but the detached leafy tops can be boiled, tossed with olive oil and lemon juice, and served as salad, or else sautéed with garlic and served as a vegetable. Valtellina’s own tender and savory cheese is not available elsewhere, but an excellent replacement is fontina.
For 6 servings
FOR THE PIZZOCCHERI
Homemade pasta dough, made by the machine method, OR by the hand-rolled method, using 3 large eggs and approximately 1¼ cups fine-grained buckwheat flour, ½ cup plus 1 tablespoon unbleached flour, 1 tablespoon milk, 1 tablespoon water, and ½ teaspoon