Ingredients

  • 360 grams flour
  • 4 large eggs
  • 1 pinch salt
  • 4 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 large bunch asparagus, At least 1.5 lbs of garden variety
  • 2 clove garlic, peeled, leave whole
  • 45 grams speck, smoked cured ham, finely slice
  • ½ small onion, thinly slice

Directions

1. Pasta: Pour out flour on kneading board. Make a well. Add eggs and oil and begin mixing by hand keeping flour well small in area. When not sticky, knead like bread dough vigoursly for 10 + minutes until dough is smooth. Cover with saran wrap and let rest 20 minutes at room temperature. OR Mix all ingredients in magimixer and blend until dough forms a ball. Knead for a couple of minutes, like bread dough. After the dough has rested: Roll it out into two very thin sheets. A serving for 4 should cover an area of 4' by 3'. Fold in the left and right sides of each sheet about 2 inches, keeping sides parallel. Dust with flour and fold it over inward again and dust and repeat until you have a "roll" of pasta which is about 3 inches wide the full length of the sheet. Begin slicing across the length at 1/4 to 1/3 inch spacing evenly until all is sliced. A trick to shaking out the length of noodles is to pick it up at the open side and shake out the folds. Try with about 4" of noodle at a time. Once separated, lightly dust with flour.
2. Asparagus Sauce: Clean asparagus well. Drain. Break off stalk ends of asparagus at natural break. Place ends in large pot of water and set to boil. Break off tip ends of aspargus just below flower buds. Set aside. Slice remaining asparagus into 1/4 inch thick rounds. Slightly thicker towards tender end, thinner towards tougher end. In a large saute pan, place garlic and thinly sliced onion. Add a ladle of stock. When onion is transparent, remove garlic and add asparagus rounds. Cook 5 minutes. Add Asparagus tips and speck. Cook 5 more minutes. Add salt. Asparagus should be al dente. Add asparagus water if needed. Remove asparagus from boiling water. Add pasta all at once to rapidly boiling water. Remove pasta as soon as the water reaches boiling around the edges. Put the slightly drained pasta into the skillet with the speck, asparagus, onion mixture and toss lightly. Add a ladle of asparagus water if needed. Add a little bit of olive oil and remove to a serving dish. Top with parmesan cheese and black pepper. Serve immediately.



Keywords
Vacation 2010, Italy
MacGourmet downloadTagliatelli with Aspargus and Speck. To import, drag image to your MacGourmet recipe box.