More Fresh Pasta – Pow! Pancetta Pasta Party

Since my wife bought me a new pasta machine for Christmas I have been on a pasta making rampage!!! Pamplona bulls couldn’t slow me down as of late (or maybe they could) with new recipes for fresh ravioli, tagliatelle, linguine, etc… With some extra dough left over from making sausage, mushroom and fresh mozzarella stuffed ravioli, I decided to make some fresh tagliatelle and surprise my family with a tasty dinner of homemade pasta with pancetta and portobello mushrooms in a white wine sauce. It’s such a delightful dish that your family will enjoy it and may come up with some snappy new flattering nicknames for you to show their appreciation!

To make the fresh pasta, crack your eggs in a flour like volcano (or add to a bowl) and gently mix the eggs into the flour until the dough becomes elastic, then begin to kneed, push, pull, wrestle and bull-fight that dough until it’s good and ready. Set aside the dough under a bowl or wrapped in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 30 minutes before cutting into a few small pieces to be fed through the pasta machine. Starting at the highest level, work your way down, folding over and thinning out the pasta. Once it’s nice and thin, feed the fresh dough again at the lowest level setting in your pasta machine and then select setting for tagliatelle shape. Place the pasta on a cutting board or long surface lightly flowered and after 15 minutes, place in a freezer bag and let sit overnight for best results. Now I have to tell you, before this pasta machine I used to make fresh pasta pretty much by hand and with a dough roller so I would have little patience and enthusiasm by the time I finished (hours later), so don’t be this guy – and that guy would be me!

For the sauce, finely chop the onions and heat in a pan with olive oil at low heat, allowing the onions to caramelize. In a smaller pan, add chopped pancetta into thick chunks as if making bucatini all’amatriciana with a teaspoon of olive oil at medium heat. After the pancetta begins to brown, remove and drain the fat before adding to the pan of onions. Soon after, add the Portobello mushrooms (cut into chunks or slices) with salt and pepper at low heat and after 5 minutes add white wine, increasing heat with pan covered for 15 minutes. While this is taking place, have a pot of water boiling for the fresh pasta (that will cook quickly so be sure to keep an eye on it) so once the pasta has been added and is ready, strain and add to the pan of sauce. Mix with a generous handful of Pecorino Romano and then celebrate because you’re ready to serve! There you have it, Paggi Pazzo’s fresh pasta recipe with pancetta and mushrooms, send out the newsflash to your friends and family that the pasta party is ready to begin!

Fresh Pasta with Pancetta and Portobello Mushrooms

Prep time: 1 hour 15 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 1 hour 45 min
Yield: 8 servings

Ingredients

• 1/3 lb. pancetta
• 1 3/4 cups Antico Molino Caputo flour tipo 00
• 1 3/4 cups Moretti Semolina Flour
• 4 eggs
• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons pepper
• 1/4 cup Italian white wine (Orvieto or Pinot Grigio)
• 1/2 cup Portobello mushrooms
• 1 small onion
• 1/3 cup Pecorino Romano

Cooking Directions

1. To make pasta dough, place flour on cutting board, counter, or large bowl and shape into a volcano with an opening in the middle. Crack eggs into middle of flour (removing shells) and add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 1 teaspoon of salt
2. Slowly beat and stir eggs in a circular motion while slowly including flour into egg mix. After several minutes, egg and flour will come together creating greater consistency and become soft like dough mixture. Once thicker, use hands to press remaining flour into dough and push, flatten, and kneed until ready (add water to mixture if necessary)
3. Take pasta dough and cover with large bowl for 30 minutes or put in plastic wrap and put in fridge
4. To make tagliatelle, take pasta dough and flour on both sides, then use hands to flatten. Add dough to machine at highest level continue to put pasta back in machine until pasta thins, flouring lightly on both sides
5. Add dough through pasta tagliatelle setting and then place on cutting board to rest, lightly covered with flour (for best results, freeze pasta over night).
6. To prepare sauce, chop onion into pan with 4 tablespoons of olive oil, let caramelize for 10 minutes
7. In a separate pan chop pancetta into chunks and add teaspoon of olive oil, removing and draining once browned
8. Add pancetta to pan with onions, then adding sliced or chopped Portobello mushrooms, cooking for 5 minutes before adding white wine at medium heat for 15 minutes
9. Bring pot of water to boil, then add fresh pasta which should cook quickly at 3-4 minutes
10. Add pasta to sauce with a healthy handful of grated Pecorino Romano, then toss and stir. Ready to serve