Needle point pasta in light blue cheese sauce
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IF YOU LIKE STUBBY AND CHEWY PASTAS, LIKE ORECCHIETTE, YOU’RE GONNA LOVE THIS
Are you still waiting for your simple, elegant, next go-to dinner party recipe that you can strut out in front of an impressed crowd and say “oh this? I just pulled it out of the fridge“?
Well, this one is mine.
In case you aren’t aware yet, but for the past two weeks, I’ve been and will be stuck with tiny and barely equipped kitchens in rented apartments all the way till early January. You know when they say, you don’t know what you have until you’ve lost it? Well, I feel exactly the same about my kitchen. Because what I have now in my temporary possession is a bended cutting board, a non-stick skillet, and a knife that’s about as sharp as a letter-opener. But, strangely, it is always when I don’t have something, that I find myself wanting it the most.
Two days ago, like a crippled soldier standing amidst the desert, not the most convenient timing of all you see, I found myself really, really craving some homemade pastas.
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Obviously, without any pasta machines, the pasta will have to be completely hand-shaped. But in case you haven’t noticed, all the best pastas are. I know it may sound intimidating, but listen, listen to me carefully. As someone who used to be just as intimidated as you are, I’m telling you this as a fact, that hand-shaping pasta is actually the easiest way to do it. It is. For one, these types of pastas are usually thicker-bodied, which requires a softer dough, which makes them much easier to knead. Then the shapes are supposed to be rustic, slightly un-uniformed, which makes them forgiving. Especially this one. I’m calling it “needle point”, because it is a shape inspired by a type of Asian rice noodle called “silver needle”. If you like stubby and chewy pastas, like orecchiette, then you’re gonna love this. It has the same pleasantly chewy and supple texture, but is much much easier to shape. Just a few seconds in between your palms, it is straightforward and fun. I mean, even a kid who’s good with play-dough could probably shape these.
Then there’s another beautiful yet convenient characteristic about great hand-shaped pastas, which is, they don’t need much else to shine. A little bit of mild, creamy blue cheese, and a good handful of grated pecorino romano, swirled together with a few splashes of pasta water plus a little specks of fresh chives, and what you’ll have is something that would normaly cost a good chunk of your wallet in a fancy Italian restaurant.
It’s funny how sometimes the best work is born out of desperations, and we wonder where it has been all our lives. Trust me, this is one of those.
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Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup Italian tip 00 flour (mine had around 10~11% protein)
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 2 large egg yolks
- 5 tbsp water
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
- 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 cup finely grated pecorino romano cheese
- 1/4 cup mild and creamy blue cheese (ex: gorgonzola)
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh chives
- More grated pecorino romano and chili flakes to serve
Instructions
- TO MAKE THE PASTA-DOUGH: Mix tip 00 flour and salt in a large bowl, then add the egg yolks and 5 tbsp of water. Stir the ingredients together and work it into a shaggy dough, then transfer to a working surface and knead vigorously for 5 min. By now, the dough should be very smooth, silky and supple, soft to the touch but not sticky (it should feel like a play-dough). If the dough is quite sticky, knead in more flour. If the dough feels hard and the surface still has folds and cracks, that means the dough is too dry. Add more water by wetting your hands, then work the additional moisture into the dough until it feels right. Wrap the dough with plastic-wrap and let rest for 30 min.
- Tear off tiny little nubs of dough, no more than 1/4 tsp each, until you have about 20~24 nubs to work with. Then roll each nub vigorously in between your palm (each should take only a few seconds), until it's short and stubby shaped with pointy ends (see the photo). Drop the pasta into a small pile of flour on the side of the counter, then repeat with the rest of the nubs. This will get pretty easy once you get the hang of it, especially if you have an assembly line going (one person tearing the nubs and one person rolling).
- Every once in a while, toss the pasta with flours to prevent sticking, but do not to curl them up in a messy pile. Arrange them in a single direction (like in the photo) so they retain their shapes. Repeat until you finish with the entire dough.
- TO COOK THE PASTA: Remove the rinds from the blue cheese and cut into small cubes. In a large skillet over medium heat, cook olive oil, minced garlic and freshly ground black pepper until fragrant, then turn off the heat and set aside.
- Bring a large pot of water with a good pinch of salt to boil, then cook the needle-point pasta just until they float to the surface of the water. We want to undercook the pasta and let them finish cooking in the sauce. Now transfer the pasta into the skillet with a slotted spoon, then return the skillet to medium-high heat. Add the cubed blue cheese and grated pecorino romano cheese, and a couple tbsp of the pasta-cooking water. Bring the content to a simmer and swirl the skillet until the blue cheese has melted, and the sauce becomes thick and creamy.
- Serve immediately with chopped chives, more pecorino romano and a few flickers of chili flakes.
Notes
I'm usually very diligent with weighing my ingredients, but because I didn't have my kitchen-scale with me, you'll have to depend a little bit on getting the right hand-feel for the dough.
Using only yolks and water, this dough is perfect for making fat and chewy types of pasta. But don't use it for thin pasta sheets (for ex, ravioli) because it will be too soft.
Heather (Delicious Not Gorgeous)
December 4, 2015 at 4:12 PMlove that you don’t need a pasta machine for this! (because there’s so many kitchen things that pans have started to spill into my bedroom closet). and wow- any sauce with a cheese base is fine by me (;
Stephanie
December 4, 2015 at 6:10 PMThis looks delicious, Mandy! I think you just re-created one of my favorite hard-to-find pastas, trofie pasta from the Genoa region in Italy (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trofie). My favorite meal in Italy was a trofie pasta tossed in a flavorful homemade pesto sauce in Monterosso in Cinque Terre. All this after a long hike in foggy/rainy weather.
Jill Shepherd
December 4, 2015 at 6:31 PMI am reading this on my phone, in my bed at 3am, having trouble sleeping since I am recuperating from surgery, and yet I am litterally tempted to get out of bed and make this recipe right now. So much for me falling back to sleep. And for future reference, you had me at blue cheese…
mandy@ladyandpups
December 5, 2015 at 1:39 PMJill, oh my I hope you’re doing ok! I would gladly make you a bowl of this if I could :) Take good rest!
Jill Shepherd
December 5, 2015 at 11:47 PMHmmm…you as my personal chef….now THAT is the dream!
Sam @ SugarSpun
December 4, 2015 at 9:30 PMI love this and can’t wait to try it out! Bonus: No pasta machine to clean :)
Jessica
December 4, 2015 at 10:07 PMSo impressed by your rental kitchen skills! Still as dreamy-delicious looking as ever!
Evelyn
December 4, 2015 at 10:38 PMThe pasta reminds be of Bee Tai Mak or lao shu fen. hehe nice
judy
December 5, 2015 at 12:18 AMQuestion: I have used whole eggs for my pasta dough and wonder what difference you see using yolks and water instead- I would have thought the egg whites,being mostly water, would give about the same result.
These look wonderful and they are definitely like trofi from Italy- I never knew they would be so easy to roll- I will definitely make them because that shape is hard to find here and is my favorite. Thank you!
mandy@ladyandpups
December 5, 2015 at 1:13 PMJudy, egg whites adds extra protein compared to pure water, and the extra protein will “Strengthen” the dough and makes it too tough for stubby noodles like this (But thin pasta sheets will need that strength, so it all depends on the application), at least for my taste. I want to add richness of the yolk, but didn’t want to toughen the dough. Hope this helps :)
Isabel
December 13, 2015 at 10:48 PMI was lazy and added whole eggs to the dough — it turned out really tough as Mandy said it would! Because I used regular AP flour, I thought the extra protein from the egg whites would help, but I think it did more harm than good. I’ll try them again without egg whites. Try, try, try again :) Thank you Mandy, for always providing such inspiration.
mandy@ladyandpups
December 14, 2015 at 1:08 AMIsabel, let us know if the second try works out :)
sybille
December 5, 2015 at 12:44 AMDear Mandy,
your noodles are original Swabian ( a German region, located in South Germany) ” Schupfnudeln” also called ” Bubenspitzle” ( what means a little boys penis :) )
We prepare them in two ways. The dough like yours or another version with potato dough and a little bit bigger sized.
The traditionel way to eat this noodles are with sourkraut and bacon.
(Trofie are much smaller and a little bit swirled)
Thanks for your version. I`ll try for sure.
mandy@ladyandpups
December 5, 2015 at 1:09 PMSybille. Thanks!! Great information!
Mabel @ misshangrypants
December 5, 2015 at 12:49 AMI absolutely Love that asian noodle!! I can’t even describe the texture. It’s chewy but slides down your throat easily! I wish I could find it here in the US. I can’t believe you made a pasta version! woo!! looks delicious :D
g-tsak@icookstuff.com
December 5, 2015 at 2:32 AMI LOVE U !
g-tsak@icookstuff.com
December 5, 2015 at 2:33 AMI LOVE U SORCERESS !
Sabrina
December 6, 2015 at 3:14 AMThis pasta looks amazing!! Definitely something I’d like to try to make!
Jill Shepherd
December 8, 2015 at 10:55 AMMade it. Loved it. Love you. Keep them coming.
Ann Ladson
December 16, 2015 at 11:50 AMSuggestions like these are not helping me attain my February Caribbean beach body!
This pasta is dangerous! ?
Puck
December 19, 2015 at 2:37 AMI can’t wait to make this. It’s so simple and inexpensive and easily customizable. And it never occurred to me that I could just make fresh pasta by hand! Thank you for posting this.
Maureen
December 30, 2015 at 10:04 AMMade this right after I told someone I would never make my own pasta! You have walked me through so many culinary firsts — thank you. I want to make this for New Year’s Eve, would have to make a bigger batch….if I make the pasta early in the day, I should keep it in the fridge? Dusted with flour?
mandy@ladyandpups
December 30, 2015 at 9:01 PMMaureen, haha glad to help! If it’s going to be cooked the same day, I think dusted with flour and scatter on a sheet tray would be fine :)
Angela
January 6, 2016 at 6:40 PMWords fail me. This is so delicious. And to top it off, so easy! Not having to weigh the flour actually made it more fun, and I felt like I had to use ‘some’ intuition to get the dough to the right consistency (mine was much too hard and dry at be beginning).
When cooked, the pasta was perfectly al dente. And the sauce is divine. I’m pretty sure I used more than 1/4 cup blue cheese, but hey ;)
This was enough to make 3 people very full and happy.
What shall I do with my leftover blue cheese, that’s just enough to make another batch…
samantha
January 8, 2016 at 1:24 PMWhat meat / meatball recipe would you recommend that would go well with this pasta?
mandy@ladyandpups
January 8, 2016 at 3:01 PMSamantha, the flavor is on the intense side, so I would probably go with red meats, like braised short ribs or a seared rib eye.
SAMANTHA
January 24, 2016 at 12:31 PMMade this tonight (with seared rib eye) and it was amazing! Husband loves blue cheese anything so he kept mumbling “this is so good” while stuffing his face. Thank you Mandy!