Sunday, March 29

nutty dinner


so you have eggs; lots of them from a bloger swap, a chunk of stale rye thats been driving you nuts and a whole heap of newly gathered walnuts from under, around and on the trampoline. A neglected walnut tree can be just as productive as a neglected quince tree. Tip: Dont peel walnuts from their green casing if you're about to go out anywhere special. The staining is so impressive it will rival a 20yr roll your own tobacco habit.

Also, there were people coming for dinner.

viola!
Pappardelle alla Pangrattato e Noci


Eye-tal-yan for pasta with crumbs and walnuts.
Delish.
I love this style of pasta - a definite lack of wet tomato or cream sauce, just oily, crunchy and very very tasty.


Quick and easy. well sort of...once everything is ready...ha! Make the pappardelle using a recipe that utilises lots of eggs, I always make pasta when i have a glut of eggs, and cut to thick ribbons and hang until ready to cook.
I use a Jamie Oliver recipe (500g '00 flour and 10 eggs makes enough pasta for 4) Mix until smooth and elastic. Cover and sit in cool place for 1 hour to let proteins do their thing before rolling out, I used a pasta machine. Hang pasta where you can (i use the clothes drying rack) or toss in semolina flour and keep moving it about so it doesnt squash itself and end up back in a solid. Here's a reality check if it all seems a bit too 'nice'...


Smash bread in manner to which you are accustomed until you have about 2 cups of chunky crumbs. Fry in about 4 tabs of olive oil until golden. Add 3 cloves sliced garlic, 3/4 cup chopped walnuts and cook for about 5 minutes more. Then add handfuls of chopped flat leaf parsley and about 1/3 cup grated parmasen cheese and salt and pepper. Toss through well drained pasta and add more olive oil to make mixing easy.

Olive oil, cheese , garlic and walnut heaven. Did you know that a straight from the tree, freshly shelled walnut is pale, soft and a little chewy?


We pigged our way through this and salad and white wine and then topped up the guts with scoops of Maggie Beer Burnt Fig Honeycomb and Caramel and a Vanilla and Elderflower ice cream . Earth Hour happenned in there somewhere.

Stuffed.

Leftovers were good too.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Can I please come to your house?!

HA!

Anonymous said...

Your guests would have felt so spoilt!

Sean said...

I so want to be you! To be able to pick walnuts among the other amazing things that grow where you live. And, to be able to make my own pasta, raise three kids and work full-time. Man, I'm not sure how you do it but I am certainly envious.

Em said...

*wiping the drool from my office desk*

YUM Kel! Do you think pecans could sub? Or too sweet?

Kelly said...

NFFT- anytime youre in Oz....

littlecofootprints- maybe a littlr but i suspect theyre getting used to me....lol

suzanne - working part time makes creativity a whole lot easier and two of the kids are pretty self sufficient so dont be too impressed! I dont know where you are but street foraging if you have no room or time to plant can be really fun

Em- hmm, best way to know is give it a go!

Pip said...

Yummo, doesn't that fresh walnut look a bit like a brain? I have heard walnuts are meant to be brain food. I do something similar with but with broccoli and anchovies, no walnuts, (and then I stand there in the kitchen and eat all the crumby, crusty leftover bits, cook's privilege)
Yay for street foraging, I get quite a bit of stuff that way.
Pip

Veggie Gnome said...

I know what we are having this week - YOUR recipe! Thanks, I can't wait to make it. YUM.

Kelly said...

Pip- i thought it looked like a plucked chicken on one of those awful stands! ohh brocolli and aanchovies...sounds like one for when the kids are away!

veggie- go for it! i know you'll love it.

Karin said...

I need to get a pasta machine. That looks too fun!

Wow. Very beautiful!!

Veggie Gnome said...

Right. I blame you. Oink oink! Two fat piggies - but very very happy!

Thanks for this recipe. It was yummelicious. Piccies in the camera, but too stuffed to do anything about it right now.

We skipped the salad. Just pigged out on the pasta. Oh yeah, there was only 1 glass of white, the other was red. I hope we won't have the food police going after us! :)

Kelly said...

veggie- so glad you enjoyed it, its a great thing to do with old bread! we olny had salad with ours coz someone else brought it along!!!! otherwise i usually skip it too! lol did you use home made /fresh pasta too??

Veggie Gnome said...

ONLY home-made pasta will do! That's why we've got chooks. ;)

We had the leftovers for lunch. Yum.

Quince paste is drying as I type. Made from your quinces, thank you! :)

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