A Simple Pasta: Tagliatelle in a Bacon Cream Sauce
You approach restaurants with extraordinary naivety. The day we opened our one and only eating house we had two pasta dishes on the menu. We made the pasta in the early hours of the morning we opened, just after we had finished hand-churning the ice cream. Husband and wife, not long married and still wide-eyed and in love, we looked at the huge mounds of pasta we had cut out with a little, very cheap machine, then at each other, and said simultaneously: ‘There is no way we will run out of pasta.’
Remarkably, there was a capacity crowd on opening day, and we had sold out of pasta before half the orders had made it to the kitchen. What a day that was. If any of the customers came back after that opening shambles, they deserve, they have, our undying respect. I suppose every opening day is the same, whether you have expertise or not. Think about new newspapers – have you ever seen a first edition newspaper that was not filled with mistakes, and riddled with poor judgements? I know I haven’t. Restaurants or newspapers, you always forget something, or expect something to work better than it has been made to work, or rely on somebody who doesn’t turn up, or run out of pasta!
Home-made pasta is like homemade bread: each really needs no assistance, but in each case, if you add ingredients to brilliantly fresh pasta or bread, those add-ons don’t have to be all that flash. Bread and butter and cheese – beautiful. Pasta and butter and cheese and black pepper – beautiful. So mix together all the simple things in the kitchen, toss them with some pasta, and you will have a wonder. And never forget that once you start fiddling with your own pasta, you’ll never need a recipe book again. Just open the fridge door and try anything. Anything.
6 eggs
6 cups plain flour salt
a little olive oil
THE SAUCE
250g bacon, sliced into 2-cm cubes
150ml cream
a little water
50g butter
salt
black pepper
chives for the finale
fresh herbs - Chives are fantastic, but anything seasonal is just fine.
some chopped nuts, just a few to provide a surprising crunch - Hazelnuts are great, but almonds, cashews or walnuts will all be terrific.
Parmesan cheese for grating
1
ln a bowl, make a well in the flour and mix in the eggs, salt and oil. Work together with a fork until it all comes together. You might need another egg or a little more flour, depending on the moisture in the eggs, or the air, or the flour. The dough will not be sticky when it is right.
2
Knead a little. You don’t have to knead too much, so don’t be discouraged – the machine will do most of the work for you. In fact, I find kneading a most enjoyable pastime: there is something special about feeling the dough come together, arriving at that special sheen that says it is just right.
3
Feed the dough through the pasta machine, moving it through one thickness at a time, until you get to the machine’s finest setting (no. 6). You can, of course, do this on a bench with a rolling pin. Umpteen millions of Italians have been doing just that for centuries. It does take a little more labour, and a lot more time, and few of us have much of that these days. Hang the dough to dry a little (over the back of a chair if you like), as it will make it easier to cut. But don’t let it dry out completely. It needs some moisture to get through the rollers.
4
Cut the pasta into whichever shape you prefer; the wide cutters are for tagliatelle, the narrow for capelli d’angeli, a delicious picture translated as angel’s hair. It is best to trim the pasta into manageable lengths – about 30 cm is a good starting point. Toss the cut pieces with a little flour to stop any sticking, and leave in ‘nests’ on a wire rack.
5
Heat a little bit of oil in a frying pan until it is very hot. Add the bacon, working it around the pan with a wooden spoon until it is cooked and quite crisp, but not dry.
Alternatively, cook the bacon in the microwave – it’s much easier. Just set the bacon on a sheet of absorbent paper and cook on high for about 60 seconds. But watch it. It cooks very quickly and can become as dry as an old boot.
6
Turn down the heat, add the cream, and cook gently, infusing the cream with the rich flavour of the bacon. Allow it to bubble away and thicken, but keep an eye on it.
You don’t want it to get too thick. Add some water when the cream looks like fading away. Keep tasting. When the cream flavour has gone and the richness of the bacon has come through, take the sauce from the heat and whisk in the butter. Add salt and pepper to taste.
7
Cook the pasta. It needs a large pot of boiling salted water. Home-made pasta will cook very quickly. If you make it yourself, it should not be cooked al dente. It should not be limp, nor firm. It should not be chewy. If you taste it all through the cooking, you will note its changes. If the pasta is yours, and a little dry, it will take a couple of minutes. If it is very fresh, it will take about half that time. If you’ve never cooked it before, just keep tasting. You will know when it is done. If you reckon it’s right, and nothing else is ready, don’t despair. Just drain the pasta and cool it quickly under cold water. Re-heat it in boiling water when you are ready. This is always a good idea during big occasions, like dinner parties for bosses, etc. It gives you more time to be good company, and less time to worry. Otherwise, it should go straight from its cooking pot into the sauce.
8
Toss the pasta through the sauce, letting it cling to it, and serve with finely chopped herbs, the nuts and Parmesan for grating.
WINE: Italian red -stick to a good maker like Antinori. Most of the reds from Coonawarra have the balance for this dish - Rouge Homme, Wynns, Hollicks, Mildara or Bowen Estate.