Polenta Cavatelli

There has definitely been an abundance of pasta, particularly cavatelli, recipes appearing on this blog lately, I am a little obsessed. Maybe it’s how easy fresh pasta is to throw together, or that you can customise, tweak and adjust it to your hearts content, probably a little bit of both. I have had polenta pasta on my mind for a while and have been trying to think it through before delving in head first and possibly wasting perfectly good product. After having some success with masa cavatelli it seemed like the perfect vehicle for polenta, I still had a couple of issues to resolve, polenta takes a while to cook through and what was going to bind the dough together, I didn’t want to rely on wheat flour for structure as I did with the masa. I settled on the idea of precooking the majority of the polenta, letting it set and then making a purée out of it, that would be the base of my dough, uncooked polenta and fine semolina were used to bring the purée together as a dough, I think if I used 100% polenta the cavatelli would be a wee bit dense.


I think I’ve mentioned it before but making too much cavatelli is never a problem, it freezes extremely well and can be cooked from the frozen, just allow a couple more minutes cooking time. The quantities below should be enough for four portions, so any unused raw cavatelli can be arranged on a sheet pan and placed in the freezer until solid and then transferred to a zip-lock bag for more permanent storage.


Polenta Purée
1 part polenta (50g)
5 parts water (250g)

• Place a rack or trivet on the bottom of a pressure cooker.
• Pour in an inch of water.
• Pour the ingredients into a heatproof bowl that will fit in the cooker.
• Cook on high pressure for 30 minutes.
• Allow the pressure to drop naturally.
• Remove the cooked polenta and when cool transfer to the fridge. Best left overnight.
• Purée the cooled cooked polenta, I used a fine mouli but a food processor is probably easier, I just don’t own one.

Polenta Cavatelli
2 parts polenta purée (250g)
1 part polenta (125g)
1 part fine semolina (125g)
2% salt (10g)

• Mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl.
• Knead to form a ball of dough, add a splash of water if you need to.
• Wrap tightly in cling-film and rest in the fridge for an hour.
• Divide the dough into four.
• Take one portion and cover the remainder.
• Using your hands, roll out into a thin log, about a pencil width thick.
• Cut into 1cm segments.
• Hold the gnocchi board at an angle and place a segment on the top edge. Use the heel of your thumb push down on the dough and towards the bottom edge of the board, the dough should curl up and fall of the board.
• Arrange competed cavatelli on a sheet pan dusted with semolina.
• Repeat with remaining dough.

Cooking

• Bring a large pot of salted water to a rolling boil.
• Place the pasta in the water, don’t overcrowd the pot.
• Cook for 4–5 minutes, they’ll float to the top when cooked.
• Scoop the cooked cavatelli out with a sieve or similar scooping device.

Sauce (for 2 portions)
Large knob of butter
2 large garlic cloves, crushed to a paste
2 tomatoes, skinned, de-seeded and finely diced
1 Lemon, juice and zest
Parsley, finely chopped
2-3 handfuls of rocket (arugula)

• Before the pasta goes in the water get a sauté pan on a medium heat.
• Melt the butter gently in the pan, add the garlic just as the pasta is going in the water.
• Gently sauté the garlic, you don’t want any colour, just cook out the rawness.
• Add the tomatoes and cook until they start to break down.
• Add a tablespoon or two of the pasta water, swirling and stirring through. The starch in the water will help emulsify the sauce and keep it from splitting. Keep adding water and cooking down until you have a nice thick sauce, probably about a third of a cup in total.
• Just before the pasta is cooked, taste the sauce, add half the lemon juice and zest, adjust the seasoning with salt. Taste and decide if you need the rest of the lemon juice, you may not.
• Scoop the cavatelli into the sauté pan and toss through the sauce, add the parsley and rocket, toss through and cook for 30–60 seconds more, just enough to wilt the rocket.

Serve with some good sharp hard cheese grated generously over top.

Spiced masa cavatelli

Well I have had a bag of masa in the pantry for a while, I have been using it, making tostada (a crispy fried flat tortilla topped with tasty things), regular tortillas (I even bought a tortilla press) and not least of all tamale. So I guess it’s a little odd my first post about masa is a pasta, there is more than enough information online regarding making the more traditional items and I’m not sure I’ve got much to add to the subject, yet.

This pasta came about due to the fact I had a container full of braised beef leftover from tortillas the previous night and a desire not have a meal rerun. When possible I try to re-purpose leftovers, it’s far too depressing to eat the same thing night after night. The usual suspects ran through my mind while trying to think of something new to do, nachos, tostada, enchilada, quesadilla, the apple not really falling far from the tree as far as ideas go. Still on my pasta making buzz, much to the chagrin of the better half, I mean I make it and eat it a lot, heck if it’s not pasta at the moment, it’s spicy noodle soups. Anyway, I had this idea of pasta nachos, make a pasta that can handle a good sauté to crisp up a bit and take a good thick braise based sauce. I thought of gnocchi and maybe revisiting the potato chip version, but I figured it would probably be best to keep on topic flavour wise so nixed that idea, masa and tortillas still banging about in my head I got to thinking if I could use it to make pasta, I couldn’t think why not, and cavatelli seemed like the perfect choice. I only wish I had a blowtorch (with a Searzall) in the house, I mean it’s the one gadget I’m lacking, but it would have been great to have the pasta tossed in the sauce, plated, topped with cheese and hit with a hot flame to really bubble and crisp up before garnishing.


Spiced masa cavatelli
100g instant masa
170g fine semolina
100g flour
280g salted water (265ml water +15g salt)
10g spice mix*

*In a spice mill, blend equal quantities of annatto, coriander seeds, and cayenne to a fine powder.

• Mix the dry ingredients together and form a well in the centre.
• Pour in the salt water and work the flour in to form a dough ball.
• Knead until smooth, about 8 minutes.
• Wrap tightly in cling film and let it rest on the bench 30 minutes.
• Divide the dough into four.
• Take one portion and cover the remainder.
• Using your hands, roll out into a thin log, about a pencil width thick.
• Cut into 1cm segments.
• Hold the gnocchi board at an angle and place a segment on the top edge. Use the heel of your thumb push down on the dough and towards the bottom edge of the board, the dough should curl up and fall of the board.
• Arrange competed cavatelli on a sheet pan dusted with semolina.
• Repeat with remaining dough.
• Store the tray of pasta at room temp until ready to cook. Alternatively place the tray in the freezer, when frozen solid transfer the pasta to a zip lock bag. The pasta can be cooked straight from frozen.

Cooking

• Bring a pot of heavily salted water to a rolling boil.
• Place the pasta in the water, don’t overcrowd the pot.
• Cook for about 5 minutes, they’ll float to the top when cooked.
• Scoop the cooked cavatelli out with a sieve or similar scooping device.
• Sauté in a hot pan with butter to give a crisp exterior.
• Toss through a sauce and serve.

Hainanese chicken

I haven’t really been terribly experimental in the kitchen lately, rather visiting old favourites such as pulled noodles, spicy chicken, playing around with pastas, and tonnes of salads. Nothing that jumps out as I must post about this! Mind you that’s what instagram and twitter is for I guess, share the meal not the recipe. It’s not so much the food is dull, it’s more that I have either posted about it before or I don’t think you really need another recipe for braised brisket and tostadas, which by the way fish sauce; miso; and ground shiitake can turn a “Mexican” braise into a savoury bomb!

Anyway, here’s a recipe I cobbled together for Hainanese chicken, a deeply satisfying dish and not too heavy at all, best of all it’s a doddle to cook.


Chicken
1 Whole chicken
Spring onions
Ginger
Ice

• Pull excess fat out of chicken cavity and set aside.
• Rub the chicken skin with kosher salt until it becomes smooth and taut.
• Rinse and pat dry.
• Season thoroughly (heavily) inside and out.
• Stuff tightly with spring onions and ginger.
• Place in a pot and cover with water, about 2 cm above the bird.
• Bring to a boil and then turn the heat down low.
• Simmer for about 30 minutes, skimming scum as it forms. It’s done when the internal temp is 76ºC.
• Carefully remove from the pot and submerge in an ice bath.
• Retain the cooking liquid, this is the soup and rice cooking liquid.

Rice
2 Cups jasmine rice
3 Garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 Thumb of ginger, finely chopped
Reserved chicken fat
½ Tsp sesame oil
2 Cups of reserved cooking liquid

• Rinse the rice until the water runs clear, soak for 10 minutes.
• Sauté the ginger and garlic in the chicken fat, be careful not to burn or over brown.
• Drain the rice and add to the pot, sauté and then add the sesame oil.
• Add the cooking liquid and bring to the boil.
• Reduce heat to low and cover.
• Cook for 15 minutes, don’t peek, just leave it be.
• Remove from the heat and let it rest for 5–10 minutes, again leave the lid alone.

Broth
Heat the remaining cooking liquid and season with salt as needed, garnish with sliced spring onions.


Chilli sauce
Look you could probably just cheat and use good ol’ Sriracha, I wouldn’t think any less of you, in fact I use a fermented chilli sauce as my base.

4 tbsp Fermented chilli sauce, use your favourite
1 lime, juiced
2 tsp sugar
2 tbsp cooking liquid, more or less
4 cloves garlic, crushed to paste
1 thumb of ginger, crushed to paste

Mix all of the ingredients together, apart from the liquid, use the cooking liquid to loosen it to a desired consistency. Taste and season, a little fish sauce is nice instead of salt.

For the Table
Dark soy sauce
Chilli sauce
Sliced cucumber

Serve
It’s really up to you how you want to serve up, I like a bowl of the rice with some of the chicken carved on it and garnished with cucumber. Rub the chicken with a bit of sesame oil before carving to make it a bit more aromatic.