Words and photo by Alec Morris.
One day, when I’m living in a whimsically decrepit villa in southern Italy, backing on to woodlands and looking down towards the ocean, I’ll grab my whittled walking stick and amble out the back door to see what mushrooms I can find. Then I’ll casually write a recipe about it as I sip thick double espressos and listen to Paganini. But right now, I’m 16,000 kilometres away, and an unaccomplished whittler, so little Al is in charge of fungi.
His love for mushrooms really stems, so to speak, from his earliest walking days when they were all that he could reach at the markets. He still collects them for us every weekend, and thinks it’s hilarious to hold a giant portobello to his ear and make phone calls. Which of course it is. The mushrooms in this recipe were chosen based on which varieties provided the clearest reception to call Nonna on, but don’t feel limited to this method of selection.
For more delicious Italian pasta recipes, grab your copy of Pasta et Al: The Many Shapes Of A Family Tradition by Alec Morris.
Egg yolk pappardelle with mushroom and taleggio sauce
Ingredients
- 360 g 121/2 oz 00 flour
- 100 g 31/2 oz durum semolina flour
- 18 egg yolks
- 2 tablespoons water
- 2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 1 quantity Egg yolk dough
- 2 garlic bulbs
- 20 g 3/4 oz dried porcini, rehydrated in hot water (drain well and retain the water)
- 800 g 1 lb 12 oz mixed fresh mushrooms, thinly sliced
- 80 ml 21/2 fl oz/1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 150 g 51/2 oz taleggio, cubed
- 100 ml 31/2 fl oz full-cream (whole) milk
- salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
- grated Parmigiano Reggiano, to serve
- Serve with Parmigiano Reggiano and cracked pepper.
Instructions
- Almost every egg pasta in this book could be made with the old-fashioned recipe of 100 g (31⁄2 oz) flour to one egg, per person. In fact, this is where they all began, and it remains a perfectly viable option if you’re pressed for ingredients. That said, the more that you experiment and tinker, the more you’ll notice the difference that flour substitutions, egg ratios and even a little oil can make.
- Note that if using these doughs for filled pasta, you can decrease the ingredients by around one-quarter if you want to. We tend to just knead up a full serve and then stuff pasta until we run out of filling, cutting any remaining dough into bonus unfilled shapes.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C (390°F). Form the dough into sheets of 0.5–0.8 mm (1/32–1/16 in) thickness, and cut into pappardelle (see Handmade pasta: Tutorial, page 33).
- Roast the garlic bulbs whole in the oven for 20 minutes. They should brown slightly on the outside. Allow to cool.
- Sauté the porcini and fresh mushrooms in the olive oil over a medium heat for about 5 minutes. Remove from the pan and set aside. In the same pan, gently melt the taleggio into the milk over a low heat. Once it has completely melted, add a few tablespoons of porcini water to taste.
- Squeeze the roasted garlic out of the cloves and add to the milk and taleggio, along with the sautéed mushrooms. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Cook the pappardelle for 2–3 minutes in a large pot of salted water, test for doneness, and transfer directly from the pot into the pan, retaining a little pasta water. Toss together thoroughly, adding a little pasta water or porcini water if too dry.
Notes
This is not a light meal, so for a little less decadence, try making your pappardelle with Whole egg dough. Pasta alternatives range from long to short and hollow, so you may just want to chop your mushrooms chunkier or finer depending on what you choose. ON INGREDIENTS
If you don’t have a toddler handy, you can also select the mushrooms yourself.
Pasta et Al: The Many Shapes Of A Family Tradition by Alec Morris (Hardie Grant, 2023).