Sautéed Cavatelli with Radicchio
Our friend Toni recently gifted me with 4 goose eggs which
she assured me were great for making fresh pasta. Is it just my imagination or
do people just get a kick of giving me large quantities of challenging
ingredients? I’m not complaining I’m just wondering out loud.
Goose eggs are HUGE. It has the most gratifying heft in your
hand, thick sandstone colored shell; gigantic bright orange yolk and water
clear white. An average chicken egg’s contents weighs about 45-50 grams, a
goose egg weighs in at around 125 grams.
Doing a rough comparison, goose eggs are higher in calories, protein and
cholesterol. It is the protein part that intrigues me because the pasta dough
had a much drier and slicker hand feel than chicken egg pasta. I opted to make
cavatelli, which in retrospect was a good choice, because I think goose egg
pasta lends itself to a chunkier, heavier style pasta. I used a traditional 2:1 ratio of
flour to egg, and actually had to cut back a bit on the flour because the dough
was becoming too stiff and dry.
The fun part was the ‘sauce’, not really a sauce but more of
a condiment.
1 radicchio head, thinly sliced
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
¼ cup guanciale, pancetta or bacon
1//4 cup fresh walnuts, roughly chopped
3 T Gorgonzola dolce, the soft kind
Balsamic Vinegar
Salt, Pepper
About 4 minutes before your pasta is done, start the sauce.
Sauté the pancetta, then add the onion and finally the
radicchio. Use a sauté pan big enough to hold the drained, cooked pasta. Sauté the vegetables until everything
is tender and wilted.
When the pasta is done, drain and add to the sauté pan and
cook until slightly browned. Toss in the walnuts. Adjust for salt and
pepper.
Plate the pasta and add a nugget of Gorgonzola in the
center, sprinkle on a bit of good balsamic vinegar. Eat.
A note about walnuts: Discovery! Fresh walnuts make a huge
difference. I’ve always used the grocery store walnuts in a bag, and you know,
uh, they have a mild walnut taste.
We were given a huge bag of very fresh walnuts (see what I mean… people
give me great stuff!) and Jeff was my hero and shelled the whole lot of them.
They are so flavorful and oily…grocery store walnuts just won’t cut it anymore.
I’m such a snob.