Smoked Trout Tagliatelle with fennel & spinach
INGREDIENTS
- For the pasta:
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 teaspoons of flaky salt or 1 teaspoon table salt
- 200g Durum wheat flour (plain flour will suffice)
- For the sauce:
- 250 g Spinach
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 medium fennel, chopped finely
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- ½ cup of white wine
- 1 medium smoked trout, flesh removed from the bone and torn roughly
- 150 g good quality cream
- Sea salt and freshly ground white pepper
METHOD
Step 1
For the pasta, place the flour in a bowl. Make a well in the centre and add the eggs, oil and salt. Stir roughly with a wooden spoon and then with your hands incorporate the ingredients and shape the dough into a ball add 1 tablespoon of water if you feel it is necessary.
Step 2
On a lightly floured bench, knead the dough for five minutes to incorporate all ingredients and to develop a silky consistency, it is the heat from your hands that will develop the silkiness and gluten. Use a squeezing action, do not fold it as this will dry the pasta dough.
Cover with plastic film and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or until needed.
(The dough will keep for two to three days in the fridge, and can also be frozen).
Step 3
Take approximately 1/5 of the dough, flatten the piece slightly with your hand, and roll it through the pasta machine on the thickest setting a few times, folding in half each time and sprinkling with a little plain flour if needed. You need to aim for a rectangular shape so continue rolling the pasta through the machine, gradually decreasing the thickness of the pasta, till you reach setting number 8 or 9. The pasta sheet needs to be thin but manageable.
Step 4
As you make each sheet, pass it through the tagliatelle cutter of your pasta machine. Sprinkle with a mixture of semolina and flour so the pasta does not stick together and toss the pasta occasionally to keep the strands separate.
Step 5
Wash the spinach then blanch the leaves in boiling water for 3-4 minutes. Cool before squeezing out excess liquid and set aside.
Step 6
Heat the oil and butter in a shallow pan and sauté the fennel and the garlic, add the wine and simmer for a minute or two. Add the trout, cream and spinach and stir gently to combine. Season to taste and simmer the sauce a few minutes to heat through all the ingredients.
Step 7
Cook the pasta in 3 liters of boiling, lightly salted water for 5 minutes or so. The pasta should be al dente.
