Passport & Plate - Uovo en Raviolo

thewanderingspatula — Wed, 4 Mar 2015 14:50:50 GMT

Ingredients
Filling
1 cup sheep ricotta
1 cup Parmesan, grated + more for garnish
1 cup beet greens (can sub spinach or any other green that is good for sautéing – original recipe used spinach)
touch of olive oil for wilting
salt to taste
pinch of fresh nutmeg
½ small white or black truffle, shaved (can sub truffle oil if don’t have access to fresh truffles)
6 egg yolks

Basic Pasta Dough
6 oz all-purpose flour
6 oz semolina flour
2 large eggs at room temperature
1 egg yolk
2-3 tablespoons tepid water

Browned Butter Sauce
½ cup butter
pinch salt

How to prepare this recipe
Filling
•Finely chop greens, but don’t puree. Wilt greens in a pan with olive oil. Let cool.
•Mix together fresh ricotta, Parmesan, greens, salt, and truffle oil (if using) and put into a piping bag. Refrigerate until mixture is cold about 15 minutes.
Pasta:
•Mix together flours.
•Make a small well in the middle of the flour and add 2 eggs, egg yolk, and water to the middle of the well.
•Whisk together the egg and water in the well. Then gradually whisk the flour into the egg mixture.
•Once dough as come together, knead on a hard lightly floured surface for 5-10 minutes. If the dough is sticky, add more flour to the surface and work into the dough.
•Form it into a ball. Coat the ball olive oil, wrap with plastic wrap, and let rest for 30 mins.
•Using a pasta roller roll out the dough into sheets to a tagliatelle thickness. If rolling by hand, roll to a thickness that you can see your hand easily behind it.
Uovo en Raviolo
•Cut pasta into 4” squares and pipe the cold filling in a circle that is large enough to fit an egg yolk snuggly in the middle.
•Carefully place egg yolk in the middle of each circle. If you break an egg yolk spoon it out and try again.
•Wet the pasta with water around the outside of the circle.
•Press another 4” square sheet of pasta on top. Carefully press the outer edge of pasta together to seal it completely. Use a coffee cup to cut a circle in the pasta.
•Bring salt water to a slow boil and dip the ravioli in the water for 1 min and 40 secs.
•Pasta should be al dente and egg should not be too cooked. When you cut into the pasta it should ooze out but not before you cut into the egg.
Browned Butter
•Melt butter and a pinch of salt in a pan. Heat until the butter stops singing and has lost water content. You can put a little truffle oil into the butter as it is melting if you don’t have fresh truffles.
•Grate fresh Parmesan and shave truffles on top of raviolo. Pour sauce on top. The butter should hot so it’ll melt the Parmesan.

The story behind this recipe
Have you ever been in a place that you felt if you lit a match, it would catch the whole room on fire with anticipatory energy? That’s how I felt as I sat amongst forty chefs, passionate eaters, food anthropologists, and food educators from around the world awaiting the start of our next workshop, “Dishes that made history: Valentino Marcattilii’s Uovo en Raviolo.” We watched in awe as Valentino and his nephew sculpted together a dish that not only took skill and expertise to make, but also used the freshest ingredients to pull out the flavor and showcase all of the hard work it took to make it.
I furiously took down notes as all of my senses engaged in a dance that would ultimately result in a full and gloriously satisfied stomach and mind. The nuttiness of the brown butter merged with the earthy notes of the freshly grated white truffle and sent a fervor into the room that made each person’s mouth water with anticipation. With the first cut of the freshly made pasta and the ooze of the perfectly poached egg in the center of the raviolo mixing with the browned butter sauce, I knew I was dining with culinary greats. I had to take this knowledge back to my home.
On my return from a week of similar culinary experiences and learning what it meant to really eat and cook “good, clean and fair,” at Slow Food’s Salone del Gusto and International Congress, I gathered together all of the people who made my trip to Italy possible, and embarked on the journey of creating that same masterpiece but with a Midwestern flair (the spinach in my garden wasn't looking fresh enough so I used beet greens instead). To my anxious excitement, the “dish that made history" made history again with my friends and supporters. We laughed and told stories of our own culinary heritage and favorite dishes as the raviolo coated our mouths and minds with memories of good friends, great food, and engaging conversation.

Passport & Plate - Chuchitos

thewanderingspatula — Fri, 14 Mar 2014 13:54:56 GMT

Ingredients
Ingredients for Chuchitos:
1 recipe prepared masa (see below)
1 tbsp salt
Pepper to taste
1 red sweet pepper
1 tomato
1/2 green chili
1/2 oz pumpkin seeds (toasted & ground)
½ oz sesame seeds
1 clove garlic minced
ground achiote (annatto) to taste
14 dried corn husks
1 ½ lbs pork/chicken/carne, cut into small bite size pieces

Ingredients for prepared masa from dried masa flour:
2 cups dried corn masa (Maseca is a good brand)
2/3 cup lard or butter
1 tbsp baking powder
1 1/4 cups chicken broth or water
1/2 tsp salt

How to prepare this recipe
1. Soak the cornhusks for about 5 minutes in lukewarm water. Set aside.
2. Prepare masa
a. Combine dried corn masa, salt, baking powder and lard (or butter) and mix with your hands, pressing the lard into the corn.
b. Gradually add chicken broth (you can also use vegetable broth or water) and mix until soft and pasty but not runny. It should hold its form on a spoon, but still be very pliable. Cover until ready to use.
3. Make Sauce:
a. Toast pumpkin seeds and sesame seeds over low heat until slightly brown. Do not let them burn.
b. Process sweet pepper, tomato, green chili, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, garlic, achiote, salt, and pepper in a food processor.
c. Cut up meat of choice into bite size pieces. Heat pan with a little lard & sauté meat pieces with a little salt & cook through.
d. At the same time, sauté tomato/pepper mixture for about 20 minutes.
e. Mix about ½ cup of prepared masa into the sauce to thicken it.
4. Shape left over prepared masa into 3-inch wide disks. To do this, role a small ball (a little smaller than a golf ball) of prepared masa, then quickly pat the prepared masa in between your hands until it starts to flatten.
5. Scoop tomato mixture onto tortilla, and make tortilla look like a taco. Squish together edges.
6. Place in the upper center of a cornhusk and fold husk around the chuchito. Then fold the bottom part onto itself. Tie off with a small piece of the cornhusk. (Look at photos to guide you.)
7. Steam chuchitos for about 1½ hours.
8. Once they are done you can serve them right away or take the cornhusk off and grill them.

The story behind this recipe
Six year ago I was invited to join my friend Les in Guatemala, who worked with coffee farmers in a Mayan village of Santa Maria de Jesus. As I was living on a farm in Belize at the time, I jumped at the chance of this new adventure. In the midst of my visit, Les’ friends heard that I loved to learn different ways of cooking. I was invited to help prepare a meal for a newly forming cooperative of farmers. As the village women’s first language was Kaqchikel, a traditional Mayan language, I knew that it would be difficult to follow their directions and conversations, but I was delighted with the challenge and truly impassioned to learn.

In this meal we were making about 140 chuchitos, literally “small dogs,” which are a smaller version of a tamale. It’s so amazing that while there was a language division between us, our laughter and non-verbals allowed us to communicate and make a delicious meal. In the recipe provided I included a way of making the masa using ingredients we have readily available in the US. I also adapted the meal to a one family serving and substituted msg for salt. (There were obviously some modern adaptations on the ancient Mayan recipes.)

The men came in from the fields to a bustling house full of women and children ready to present a meal. The meal was full of promise of good will and the hope that our relationship with these farmers would thrive. Today the project is thriving and still expanding each year. As the men ate with vigor, from the appetites built up from their hard work, we women looked on with pride and gratitude.

Through this experience I fell in love with the place, people, and food (even the ceviche made with bulls’ balls). I also fell in love with Les in the process, marrying him 3 years later. We continue to visit and work with our Guatemalan friends as much as possible. Our relationship with each other and the farmers may not have happened because of this meal, but it definitely helped to start us on our journey.

Falling in Love: food and other travels

Passport & Plate - Uovo en Raviolo

Passport & Plate - Chuchitos