This is one of those dishes we make in Le Cordon Bleu to learn how to make pasta. The thing is, I am pretty good at making pasta in school. Reason being, I make ramen so much at home, pasta is really quite the same.
I am not too sure where the Italians got their inspiration of pasta from. Some say Marco Polo brought it back from China. Well, that’s what one of our chef instructors said. My son vehemently disagrees every single time I say this. O well, maybe that’s because I said that many years ago when China was still very much a third world country. Now that the Chinese are far ahead of many ‘civilizations’, perhaps it is ok for the youngsters to think that there’s much to be proud of our own heritage.
In school, I am always known to be very proud of my food. I took great care in selecting the garnishes from the garden. I also am quick. Those are such great memories. I will do the culinary school again just for the challenge.
It was really challenging… I was the oldest student, at more than twice the age of my classmates. Yet, I think I did very well. At least according to some of my instructors.
I will always remember LCB fondly. I improved my culinary skills by leaps and bounds (according to my daughter), but to me, the greatest achievement is in completing all the three levels: Basic, Intermediate and Superior at great grades.
I am pretty proud of myself for the tenacity. Haha.
This dish was one of the assessment dishes during the intermediate class. Not difficult, but be diligent in getting the pasta right. The lesser the water, the better the pasta, but the more muscles you’d need.
Have fun!
Pappardelle with chicken and mushroom ragout - Pappardelle au ragoût de poulet et de champignons
Ingredients
Pasta dough – Pate a nouille.
- 200 g Bakers flour
- 1 pinch Salt
- 2 medium Eggs
- 1 medium Egg Yolk
- 1 tbsp EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)
- 50 g Semolina , fine for dustring
Chicken Ragout
- 1 each Chicken thigh
- 15 g Flour
- 15 g Butter
- 10 g French Shallots Brunoise
- 1/2 Garlic Crushed
- 100 g Mushrooms Chopped finely
- 3 g Tarragon fresh
- 5 g Baby Capers
- 10 g Semi dried tomatoes Diced
- 10 g Olives Pitted and small dice
- 15 ml White wine
- 30 ml Double cream
- 1 tsp Parsley Finely chopped
Liason
- 1 Egg Yolk
- 20 ml Cream
Putting Together
- 100 ml EVOO
- 80 g Parmesan Cheese
- 30 ml Olive Oil
- 2 tbsp Pasta cooking liquid
- 4 leaves Basil leaves - deep fried
Instructions
Pasta dough – Pate a nouille.
- Sift flour and salt and make a bay. Whisk the eggs and oil together and pour into the centre of the flour. Using fingers and a pastry scraper mix the flour with the egg mixture to form dough.
- Knead gently until firm and smooth. Cover with plastic and refrigerate for 30 minutes to rest.
Chicken and Mushroom Ragout
- In a small saucepan melt butter, add shallot and garlic and sweat gently until soft approx 5 minutes.Add mushrooms cook for further 5 minutes Add chicken and tarragon mix gently through mushroom and vegetable mixture.Add flour mix well, continue to cook gently.
- Moisten with white wine, mix gently reduce by half, add hot chicken stock.Cook gently for approx 5 minutes until stock has reduced by 1/3 and chicken has cooked thoroughly. Add double cream, mix to combine.
- Remove saucepan from heat, and add diced sundried tomatoes, capers and olives, check seasoning.
- Add the liaison to the remaining chicken ragout mixture. Finish with chopped parsley and refrigerate.
Putting together
- Cook the Pappardelle in boiling salted water as per tagliatelle recipe- drain.
- In a sautese gently heat ragout with a small amount of pasta cooking liquid, gently mix to reheat, Add pappardelle. Toss gently to warm through-check seasoning
- Garnish with parmesan cheese and deep fried basil leaves- serve as per demonstration. (photo)
