Tag: fresh pasta

Paul Ainsworth’s Cornish Cod Loin with Spaghetti, Wild Garlic Pesto, Crispy Pancetta and Pangrattato

.Reading time 5 minutes.

Serves: 4

It’s been a while since my last post, though this one is worth it. (We’ve been super busy with work and also travel – India and Fiji for four and a half weeks!).

Nat first cooked this pasta as part of a pasta-cook-off during Covid.

Judged by Nat’s sister Court and husband Greg, I was confident my pasta – Gordon Ramsay’s Lobster Ravioli with Lemongrass Veloute – was a shoe-in.

I almost felt sorry for Nat.

White fish piece perched on top of spaghetti. I of course urged her on, preparing myself for the accolades and retention of my crown in the kitchen.

It didn’t go to plan.

Court and Greg looked at each other and then me. We knew.

My abdication had in fact occurred years prior, though like that 46-year old guy still partying at Ibiza, I thought my old moves might reconquer. (46-year old RobbyDog should know by now he is on the wrong side of the slope.)

My pasta was excellent. A fine dining Gordon Ramsay recipe from his book ‘3 Star Chef’.

The only problem being the book was written in the 90s. (About the time I should have been in Ibiza).

I was bringing a 24 year old dish to a knife fight.

Nat’s dish – this pasta – was just so youthful in comparison. Subtle, fun, real 1-hat if not 2-hat cooking. It is sublime.

Nat can’t cook omelettes (something Gordon Ramsay uses as his baseline test of cooking) so maybe there is hope.

Truth is, I know Nat can cook omelettes. She is just humouring me.

(Nat just cooked this for a second time for a late Sunday lunch and wow – it’s still a complete winner!)

Ingredients

Cod Loin

600gm cod loin, cut into 4 equal portions
400gm of spaghetti
100gm of pancetta
200ml of fish stock (or vegetable stock)
60gm of pine nuts, toasted
1 lemon, juiced
100gm of crème fraîche
20gm of basil, chopped
20gm of parsley, chopped
20gm of wild garlic, chopped
50gm of butter, plus extra for greasing
25ml of vegetable oil

Wild Garlic Pesto

30gm of basil
30gm of wild garlic
100gm of pine nuts, toasted
10ml of lemon juice
30gm of Parmesan, grated
100ml of olive oil
Salt, to taste

Pangrattato

250gm of sourdough bread, broken into pieces
4 garlic cloves, finely grated
20gm of thyme leaves
1 lemon, zested
Salt, to taste
50gm of butter

Method

  1. To begin, make the pesto. Place the basil, garlic and pine nuts in a pestle, grind to a coarse paste then gradually grind in the rest of the ingredients until you reach a pesto consistency.
  2. To make the pangrattato, add all of the ingredients to a food processor and blitz until broken into fine breadcrumbs.
  3. Place a pan over a medium heat, add the butter and once foaming, add the breadcrumb mixture. Roast until the breadcrumbs are golden brown and have a nice crunch. Place on a tray and set aside.
  4. Preheat the oven to 180c.
  5. Place a large pan of salted water over a high heat and bring to the boil.
  6. When ready to cook, lightly season the cod loin and place on a buttered baking tray. Bake for 10 – 12 minutes, then remove from the oven and allow to rest in a warm place.**
  7. Cook the pasta. Meanwhile, add the vegetable oil to a heavy based pan and fry the pancetta until crispy and brown. Add the butter for an extra crisp finish, then deglaze with the stock. Allow to reduce slightly, then add 300gm of the pesto, the pine nuts, lemon juice and crème fraîche.
  8. Add the fresh herbs to the sauce. Drain the spaghetti, tip into the sauce and stir until everything is well coated.
  9. To serve, divide the spaghetti between plates and top with the baked cod. Add an even layer of pangrattato to the cod.

* You can’t really buy this in Australia. It’s widely regarded as a weed and banned in some States. Substitute garlic.

** Nat pan fried with a fish weight to get the skin super crispy.

Chicken and Mortadella Agnolotti Del Plin

.Reading time 3 minutes.

Serves: 4 (as an entree)

Another brilliant pasta from the cookbook Saturday Night Pasta, served as I walked into the house this afternoon after a few meetings in the city.

What a treat!

This is one-hat pasta. And served with a cold Champagne, it’s wonderful one-hat.

Reasonably simple too: which the best pastas are.

I know that making fresh pasta is sometimes a bit of a hurdle, though it really does make this dish. Ditto the burnt butter.

And when combined with the wonderful chicken and pork mixture…

Just do it.

Ingredients

250gm chicken mince
150gm sliced mortadella
3/4 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano, plus extra to serve
3 tbsp finely snipped chives
1 egg
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Flour for dusting
1 cup chicken stock
3 tbsp salted butter, roughly chopped
10 sage leaves

Fresh Egg Pasta Dough

200gm (1 1/3 cups) flour plus extra for dusting
2 eggs, beaten
Good pinch of salt

Method

Fresh Egg Pasta Dough

  1. In fairness to the author of the book – Elizabeth Hewson – her description of how to make this basic dough is not only detailed, though provides the guardrails to make sure you would find it hard to stuff up. When to add water, when to…. etc.
  2. Nat loves making dough though she doesn’t have much time for it.
  3. So essentially, knead all of this into a ball. Nat used a KitchenAid and let it rest for an hour and if this doesn’t work for you, perhaps explore further on how to make pasta dough: it isn’t hard either way.

For the restPlace the chicken mince, mortadella, Parmigiano Reggiano, chives, egg and a generous pinch of salt in a food processor and blitz until combined: set aside in the fridge whilst you make the pasta, or up to 2 days.

  1. Flour your bench and roll your pasta dough to about 1mm thick (setting 3 on a hand pasta roller). You want a long piece of pasta dough about 10cm in length.
  2. Lay the pasta dough on the dusted bench and dot half a teaspoon of the filling about 3cm apart in the middle of the pasta sheet. (See photo below to guide you.) Fold the pasta over and seal, squeezing out any air as you seal, ensuring the sheet evenly stretched over the filling.
  3. Trim and start pinching close the pasta, all the way down to the filling: and there you have agnolotti which should now be placed on a dusted tray ready for cooking. Get your water boiling and boil the agnolotti until it rises to the top and is ready.
  4. At the same time, place the stock, butter and sage leaves in a large, deep frypan and over a high heat bring to a boil. Burn as far as you want. Transfer the cooked agnolotti to the butter mixture and swirl. Serve with plenty of Parmigiano Reggiano and a good crack of pepper.