In Rome this spring, I had the opportunity to spend most of a day learning to cook some authentic Italian dishes from Chef Federico Alessandri who runs chefinaday.com It was a great experience – starting in the farmer’s market buying ingredients, then making 3 types of pasta and other dishes.
Here’s the recipe for Cappelletti (little hats) with Mushroom stuffing. The picture here is from when we made it at his studio, the version I made yesterday with friends was, well, not quite as pretty.
Cappelletti with Mushrooms – Serves 4
Pasta
- 300g double zero (00) flour
- 3 Eggs (can’t be more than 60g each with shell – 55g good)
- Spoon of EVOO
- Pinch of salt
Make a well and mix in the wet ingredients to create a dough and knead for 5+ minutes until smooth. It’s okay if the dough is hard but make sure it is not too soft. Vacuum seal and refrigerate.
Mushroom Filling
- 8 ounces of mushrooms
- 5 ounces of Italian ricotta cheese (preferably goat’s milk ricotta)
- 2 ounces of pecorino cheese
- Herbs: Parsley, Mint
- 1Tbs Fibergold*
- Nutmeg
- Lemon zest
- Salt, Chef’s pepper
*Fibergold is an Italian product I’ve not tracked down yet – it’s corn starch + potato fiber and it absorbs the moisture so that the mix is drier. I tried to substitute some cornstarch and tapioca starch and it didn’t fully work.
To make the filling, saute the mushrooms, then chop with the herbs and mix with the other ingredients.
Forming and cooking the Pasta
Take the dough and run through pasta roller a few times to get smooth and then increasingly narrow until very thin. Not sure of the exact # setting. Cut into 2″x2″ squares. Place a 3/4″-1″ ball of the filling in the middle, fold in half corner to corner to create a triangle. Pull around the sides of the triangle and overlap to create the “hat” shape. Boil the pasta for a minute or two until done and add to the sauce.
Sauce
- 3Tbs Butter
- 1C Water
- 1C Parmigiana cheese
Warm the butter and water in a frying plan, add the pasta, stir and leave so the starch comes out. Add Parmigiana cheese only when mixture is between 50-60 deg C.
Separate Creamy cheese sauce (to drizzle)
Soft cheese + Water
Blend
Cool to thicken
Sprouts to garnish
Evoo
Smoked salt
On plate