An instagram follower of mine named Mirielle wrote to me with a request:
Do you have a recipe for pasta with hazelnuts?
Excited about the prospect of a challenge, I told her that I would create one expressly for her and make it into a post.
The unbearable lightness of recipe creation
I used to write poetry but my muse split (for Millennials and younger: cruised; pre WWII: took a powder). I have at least managed to salvage something of the creative process of poetry writing that I channel into recipe creation.
When I was still a fertile poet, I would do what I called ‘waiting for the train.’ Sure, sometimes poems just dropped into my head unexpectedly, but train-sitting was an exercise that put me into a state of open awareness, of receptivity, one that invited poetry - flypaper is the first analogy that comes to mind... See? No muse.
Something similar happens when I create a recipe. I orient myself and one by one ingredients are invited to assemble in my olfactory mind. I switch them in and out testing different combinations - but it is not head thinking, it is sensory thinking. I don’t want to get into a New Age McFuddle about this, but it is a sort of purposeful presence, a sensual journey through textures, aromas, impact, and overall satisfaction from eyes to stomach - what happens after the stomach is not my affair.
Caveat: around 7pm, when I am entangled in some piece of writing, my mind interrupts to remind me that I have to get something on the dinner table within an hour, so I start a mental inventory of what’s on hand. That is domestic gymnastics. While a talent in its own right, it’s a different ballgame from recipe creation - more sport than art.
Recipe preamble
Depending on where you live, this may not be the right season for a cool/cold weather dish, but yesterday it was 37°C here and it was still a good eat. Mirielle lives in Ontario, Canada so this should stand her in good stead for the better part of the year.
I start off with a wholewheat egg pasta. Whole durum wheat will add more flavor and texture to support the hazelnuts, but I lighten it with 50% AP flour (tipo 00). I have never seen wholewheat boxed garganelle so if you don’t want to make the pasta yourself you’ll have to shop around for a substitute like whole wheat tortiglioni. If you make it by hand and want to use a pasta machine, please do. I prefer rolling the sfoglia out by hand. Once you get the hang of it, it really isn’t as daunting as you think and gives you a great feeling of achievement that comes with mastering a new skill.
The one ingredient that might be difficult to get is speck. Speck is cured smoked pork from Alto Adige seasoned with pepper, juniper, rosemary and bay. If you have to substitute with bacon or guanciale, you want to keep it mild or reduce the quantity, allowing for the difference in fat as well. Speck is a blanket term, so be sure you refer to the link above.
Honey: If we are going to get really geeky, a dark, bitter honey would be best - chestnut or corbezzolo - which is more commonly known as ‘strawberry tree’.
For the best quality hazelnuts, I recommend Piemontesi hazelnuts as I have discussed before in a recipe for dark chocolate hazelnut cake.
The final flavor element is smoked cheese. I used smoked ricotta, a medium-hard cheese. If you are not in northern Italy, this may be impossible to find and can easily be substituted with another grate-able smoked cheese.
So, without further ado:
WHOLE WHEAT GARGANELLI WITH HAZELNUTS, SPECK, AND SPICY ORANGE HONEY
INGREDIENTS - serves four as a first course or three as a main with salad.
1/2 tsp chili flakes
50g honey, preferably dark
1 tsp grated orange zest
150g All purpose or type 00 flour
150g whole wheat durum flour
2 eggs + 50g warm water
100g speck (see note above)
80-100g toasted hazelnuts
5 tbsp salted butter (70g) (if you substitute the speck with guanciale, make allowances for the fat - if you are concerned about fat).
sprigs of fresh thyme - dried will not have the same taste but will do
grated smoked cheese
INSTRUCTIONS:
Heat the honey until just bubbly. This can be done in the microwave. Add the chili flakes and orange zest. Stir and set aside to infuse.
Start the pasta: make a well with the two flours and add the eggs and water. Mix with a fork or with your hands until all is incorporated. Knead for 5-10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Wrap in plastic and set aside to rest for 1/2 an hour.
Heat one tablespoon of the butter in a large skillet. On medium-low, cook the speck until it becomes rather dry and crisp.
Remove from the pan and chop.
Add the hazelnuts to the same pan and cook them a bit, swirling them around in the fats. When they just barely start browning, remove and chop, preferably with a knife so that you have more control. I left them coarse, but you can make them finer if that is your preference.
Roll out the dough or put it though a pasta machine and cut it into 5cm squares. Take care to keep the pasta covered and reveal it little by little as you are using it.
To form garganelli - take a stick that is the width of a wooden spoon and wrap one of the squares around it as you run it over a ridged gnocchi/garganelli board. You can get these on Amazon (and elsewhere), but if you don’t want to invest in something you will not use, then you can just roll them on a flat surface taking care to press to seal.
You can even do this step day(s) ahead and leave them to dry.
When you are ready to make the dish, bring a large pot of salted water to the boil and toss in your pasta.
In a skillet melt the butter and pick the leaves from the thyme sprigs. Put them in the butter but don’t cook.
When the pasta is almost al dente, strain it (don’t drain completely because you want some of that water) into the skillet which is now on medium-high.
Toss until the water has nearly evaporated.
PLATING STEPS