So, first question, for those of you who are not schooled in the culinary arts...what are chanterelles anyway? I even went back to this question a time or two as came across this recipe and even in preparation for it. I finally looked it up. Chanterelles are a dainty and curly wild mushroom. Please get a trained field guide to identify your own, I'm only going by what they look like dried. The recipe called for fresh, but no one had them. So I spent more on mushrooms than I do on meat for a week, sometimes two and I prepared to make this recipe.
Next, hand-made pasta-I did want to use the ravioli, but it was all gone. This sauce could be really good over the sweet potato ravioli. Back to the hand-made pasta. I don't own a pasta roller, its all by hand. These are the days a girl learns what she's made of and begins to feel like the tea bag she pours hot water over in the morning. I began making the dough on Tuesday night, but due to some form of failed time management, it became too late to work with it. I refridgerated it overnight, and last night,the pasta didn't wish to be worked. I'm not sure if it hadn't come up to room temperature enough, or if it was too dry. I did use gold medal wheat flour as that was what I had on hand. I didn't purchase Red Fife Flour from Anson Mills. I thought about it, but it would take time to get here, and the local grocer's provide Bob's Red Mill-which I could have used. However, I had a bag and a half of wheat flour on hand, and decided it would be fine enough. I started the pasta over tonight, and decided to work it through from start to finish. Luckily, a kind-hearted friend had pizza and offered me some as my stomach began to growl shortly after I started. Its much easier to pound pasta dough for ten minutes on a full stomach than on a growling one. Alas, I'll get back to the recipe.
I find recipes to be a little tricky sometimes. They rarely ever say set aside 3 good hours for this recipe or work on this 10-15 a day for three days in a row. I love the cooking adventure, but sometimes you wonder if the author/cooks realize how helpful these details would be. If you haven't noticed by now, Hand-made, Hand-rolled pasta is a long process. And I'm wondering if my ten-minute kneading knuckles will forgive me in the morning for doing this to them again and if my shoulders will consider continuous rolling of pasta dough right down to the size of a dime a work-out or a punishment. However, if you have worked up a good mad and can envision someone's face in pasta dough, or simply wish to carve it in, you will most likely be successful in making dime-thin pasta. Me, I had already had a fair amount of stress-relief and gave considerable thought to borrowing my seven year old niece who rolls out paper thin tortillas every time. But just like life, pasta must be conquered with a plan or a good bout of madness.
Right, so you've heard about pasta twice now-and I think I'm done with the pasta parts of this for a while. So, now, onto the good stuff, pancetta. Fatty, salty, yummy, bacon or side pork taken to an entirely new level. If you cannot find pancetta, you can use side pork. Pancetta is even slightly more tender, and you can tell the difference, if its cooked well. Its more work to cut into a quarter inch dice than I thought, but I think I need to sharpen my knives. I'm not entirely surprised there, I do use them often. It leaves me tempted to go buy my own Giada Santoku knife. But alas, knife woes aside, I crisped the pancetta and set it aside. I added the olive oil and minced shallots to the pan and sauteed until slightly wilted. I added the chanterelles and some fresh thyme leaves and sauteed another moment. Then I poured in the white wine and let it reduce.
Meanwhile, my water was boiling for the pasta, so I dropped it in to cook while the wine reduced by half. The recipe had more wine than I did tonight, but not much more. Once the pasta was ready, I I scooped it into the strainer and began the second batch. Then I added heavy cream to the sauce and sea salt and fresh ground black pepper. And I removed the second batch of pasta to cool with the first.
When the sauce was ready, after about ten minutes, I tossed the pasta with it, and tasted, pretty good. I like all things going into the sauce, so I'm not surprised that I like it, but the flavors work together very well, better than I expected. I'm always pleased when that happens. I expect this will make a very good lunch over the next couple of days.
And with a little planning, and effort, and a few minor sacrifices-dried chanterelles instead of fresh, and kneading two batches of pasta because I can be a perfectionist, I made myself a lovely batch of lunches I would never had made were it not for this book and this blog. The flavors still mingle very well on my tongue, though my shoulders are deciding they may have been pushed a little hard. But with a little TLC and some planning and guidelines, it looks like my life is starting back on the track I want it on. There will still be work and planning such as with the pasta dough, and sometimes having to give the dough itself some TLC before your knead it for ten minutes straight, but when you put your heart into it, you get the most out of it.
I will definitely make this dish again, just not this month;-).
Until we meet again,
Tatiana
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