Pappardelle with fennel sausage
This is another dish courtesy of Tim Siadatan, and it’s a great sauce to make extra of and freeze—it’s exactly what I did this time myself. This would work with any pasta shape, although using pappardelle seems to elevate a dish really well. Make sure to scroll to the bottom of the page for step-by-step photos.
GATHER for sauce (2 servings)
1 tbsp of whole pepperoncini (or dried chili flakes)
4 tbsp of fennel seeds
1.2kg or about 2.5lbs of ground pork
Modified soffritto of 2 celery stalks, 2 peeled carrots, 1 red onion, and 1 fennel bulb
5 garlic cloves, pressed
Zest of 1 orange
Bouquet garni of 1 rosemary sprig and 2 bay leaves
500mL chicken stock
4 tbsp of mascarpone cheese
400mL of white wine
Salt
GATHER for pappardelle dough (about 8 servings)
500g 00 flour
454g egg yolks
PREPARE the sauce
Place 1tbsp of whole pepperoncini and 4tbsp of fennel seeds in a pan, and bring up to medium-high heat to toast. Once the fennel seeds begin to lightly pop, immediately move off of the heat into a spice/coffee grinder and grind.
Add the ground spices and a generous layer of salt to 1.2kg/2.5lbs of ground pork and combine thoroughly. Set aside.
Pass 2 celery stalks, 2 peeled carrots, 1 red onion, and 1 fennel bulb through a food processor. This is your soffritto. Place in a bowl and set aside.
In a pot over medium-high heat, add olive oil and begin to brown the pork. If your pot is too small, this may require two batches.
Once the pork is browned, set aside on a plate. Add the soffritto to the pot over medium/medium-low heat and cook until the moisture is mostly gone. Towards the end of this cook time, add 5 cloves of pressed garlic.
Turn up the heat, and add 400mL of white wine (about a half bottle, more or less) and cook for about 2 minutes.
Add the pork back into the pot, and add enough chicken stock to mostly cover the pork. Cover and cook over low heat for 1 to 1.5 hours.
PREPARE the dough
In a large bowl, place 500g of 00 flour and create a well for the egg yolks.
In another bowl, begin placing egg yolks in the bowl over a scale until you have 454g of egg yolks.
Dump the whole egg yolks into the flower well. Begin to gradually combine.
Place the mixture on a clean surface, and begin kneading for 10 minutes. At the end of 10 minutes, the ball of dough should be smooth and bounce back when poked. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and let rest at room temperature for at least 1 hour.
PREPARE the pappardelle
Once the dough has rested, unwrap the dough and cut into quarters (see photo below) and take one quarter and flatten with your hands or a rolling pin.
Using the widest setting (0) on your pasta machine, pass the dough through the pasta machine. (If the dough feels sticky, add a little bit of flower—but, all-egg yolk dough is wonderfully resilient and does not stick much)
Laminate the dough by folding in thirds (see photo below) and pass through perpendicular to the pasta machine on its widest setting. Do this lamination process three more times, and fold to ensure the pasta is as wide as the pasta machine. (You want this to be as wide as possible.)
Decrease the thickness by turning the knob to setting 1, and pass the sheet of pasta through twice. Continue this process, moving up to setting 6.
Cut into rectangular strips—see below. I like using a ruler because I cannot cut straight, but generally, a wideness of at least 3cm or 1.25in is desirable. Dust with flower, and set aside covered.
FINAL assembly (for 2 servings)
Bring a pot of salted water to a gentle boil.
In a saucepan, combine 2tbsp of butter and two ladles of the sauce and begin to melt over medium-heat.
Once the water is boiling, drop the pappardelle in and cook for one minute. Also, add about 1 ladle of the cooking water to the sauce.
Immediately transfer the pappardelle to the saucepan over the highest flame setting. Mix and toss to combine, and add additional water to loosen the sauce, if needed. The noodles should be thoroughly coated, but not overwhelmingly so.
Plate immediately, and garish with chopped parsley and grated parmigiano-reggiano.
