Monday, October 12, 2009

Ravioli carbonara




So this is a combination of two classic Italian recipes to make a twist on a classic dish. Carbonara pasta, is a dish consisting of bacon (preferably pancetta), egg yolk, pasta, cream, and parmesean. Aside from the fact that I work in a Spanish restaurant,( so I will be substituting pancetta for jamon Serrano, and aged Parmesan for aged manchego), the elements are still true to the classic. The twist is using a egg yolk ravioli to incorporate the egg aspect of the sauce.




Ingredients:


Pasta dough: 1:1 ratio of egg yolks to flour


2c All purpose flour


2 egg yolks


1 ts salt


2 tbl extra virgin olive oil


water.




Sauce:


1 egg yolk per ravioli (if you are serving 12 ravioli, you need 12 egg yolk-it's the filling)


2tbl mashed garlic


1/2 cup cream


2 tbl small diced jamon serrano


grated manchego


1tsp crushed chili flake


Salt & Pepper to taste


Chopped parsley for garnish




Directions


For the pasta dough, combine all ingredients, except water in a food processor and turn on. The Ingredients will form into a pasta dough ball, if too floury or dry, slowly add a bit of water to get desired consistency-which is firm, and a bit moist). *side note: this is the easier and less time consuming way to make the dough. If you do not have a food processor, place all flour on a work surface and make a "well". Add the egg yolks, and remaining ingredients to the well, and knead until pasta dough is formed.




If you have a pasta machine, run the dough through that until super thin. If you don't have one of these machines, take a rolling pin, lightly flour the surface you will be working on (and the rolling pin), and roll the crap out of the dough until it is long, thin and about 6 inches wide.




Place egg yolks, spaced apart on the dough. and fold the dough over, so that the yolks are covered, spaced apart, do not break, and are sealed in the dough. Cut the dough so that each piece has a sealed, egg yolk per portion. You have just made ravioli!




To cook, drop into a pot of boiling, salted water. How salted should the water be? There are some that have it down to an exact science of parts per million, but realistically your water should, as one Italian chef I worked for would say, "like the ocean cuz". They should take 3-5 minutes to cook, but when they float, they are done.




While the pasta is cooking in a saute pan, sweat the minced jamon, in a little bit of olive oil with the garlic, once the garlic is sweat, and the jamon is browned, add the cream and grated manchego, allow the cream to reduce slightly, fold in the parsley for color.




Once the pasta is cooked, drain and toss in the sauce. Plate as you see fit.