Recipe: Lidia Bastianich's Tagliatelle with Porcini Mushroom Sauce

Shahir’s culinary hero, chef Lidia Bastianich, stopped by The Goods to share some of her famous recipes that you’re gonna want to make ASAP. These recipes make up a simple but elegant dish from Lidia’s latest cookbook, Celebrate Like an Italian. The Emmy-award winning chef assured us that making fresh pasta doesn’t have to be a daunting task — and you don’t even need a pasta maker. A far cry from the dried version found in our pantries, this perfectly delicious recipe cooks up a pasta so fresh you may never go back. Pair with Lidia’s Porcini Mushroom Sauce and you’ll have a slice of heaven right on your plate.

Tagliatelle with Porcini Mushroom Sauce

By Lidia Bastianich and Tanya Bastianich Manuali

If you don’t have a tagliatelle attachment for your pasta machine, just roll the sheets of pasta like a jelly roll and cut them lengthwise at ½-inch intervals with a sharp knife, or pizza cutter, making sure you dust liberally with flour so the pasta does not stick. Or, if pressed for time, you can serve store-bought dry tagliatelle nests. This simple yet elegant dish would would be a quick and easy first course for a special fall dinner party. It is best with porcini mushrooms, but any good fresh mushrooms, or a mixture of varieties, will make a good sauce as well.

Ingredients

• 1 recipe Poor Man’s Two-Egg Pasta Dough (recipe below)
• 1 tsp kosher salt, plus more for cooking pot and to taste
• ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 lb fresh porcini mushrooms, trimmed and sliced
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed and peeled
• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 2 tbsp unsalted butter
• 3 tbsp chopped fresh Italian parsley
• ¾ cup chicken stock
• ½ cup grated Grana Padano

Poor Man’s Two-Egg Pasta Dough:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted, plus more as needed
• 2 large eggs
• ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

Preparation

For dough:

Put the flour in the work bowl of a food processor and pulse several times to aerate. In a spouted measuring cup, combine the eggs, olive oil, and 3 tablespoons cold water. Beat with a fork to combine.

With the processor running, pour the egg mixture through the feed tube and process until the dough forms a ball around the blade. If the dough doesn’t begin to form a ball after about 15 seconds, add a little more flour (if it is too wet) or water (if it is too crumbly), and process until you get a ball. Once the ball forms, process about 30 seconds to make a smooth and homogenous dough.

Dump the dough onto the counter, and knead a few times to make a completely smooth ball of dough that springs back when pressed. Wrap the dough in plastic, and let it rest at room temperature for 30 minutes. (The dough can also be made a day ahead, wrapped, and refrigerated.  Return it to room temperature before proceeding.)

For pasta:

To roll the pasta, cut the dough ball into six pieces. Keep the pieces covered as you work, and line several baking sheets with floured kitchen towels.

Flatten each piece, then roll it through the pasta machine on the widest setting several times, folding it like a letter (rectangle) each time to smooth and strengthen the dough. Once you have a smooth rectangle, continue to roll the piece through each setting, stopping at the next-to-last setting. Layer the pieces, without touching, on the floured towels.

Fasten the pasta-cutting attachment to the machine, and run the sheets through the wider setting for tagliatelle, or cut by hand (see headnote). Dust the strands of pasta, and form them into loose nests on the floured baking sheets. (The pasta can be made earlier in the day and allowed to sit at room temperature, uncovered, until you’re ready to cook.)

When you’re ready to cook bring a large pot of salted water to boil or the pasta. Add 2 tablespoons of the olive oil to a large skillet over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, add half of the mushrooms and garlic, and season with ½ teaspoon salt and some pepper. Cook until the mushrooms are lightly browned on both sides, about 4 minutes. Do not stir the porcini, or they will break; rather, turn them gently with a spatula. Transfer the porcini to a plate, and proceed as before with the remaining oil, garlic, porcini, salt and pepper.

Discard the excess oil from the skillet, and over medium heat, return all of the porcini to the pan; add the butter and parsley. Adjust the seasoning, add the stock, and simmer until the mushrooms are tender, about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, add the pasta to the boiling water. As soon as the pasta is done, about 1 to 1 ½ minutes after it returns to a boil, gently remove with tongs and a spider to the sauce. Add a little pasta water if the sauce seems dry. Sprinkle with the grated cheese, toss and serve.

Excerpted from Celebrate Like an Italian by Lidia Bastianich and Tanya Bastianich Manuali. Copyright© 2017 Tutti a Tavola, LLC. Published by Appetite by Random House®, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.