Side Dish: Tagliatelle Pasta Recipe + Andrea Volpini Talks Italy

Mar 4, 2014

Today’s Side Dish: Easy Tagliatelle Pasta with Ragu. Recipe courtesy of Andrea Volpini of Enjoy Different Taste!

Watch the Side Dish Q&A below or on Backyard Bite’s YouTube Channel to learn what it’s like for Andrea being a food blogger in Italy. Then read on for the adapted recipe courtesy of Andrea. You can check out Enjoy Different Taste’s YouTube channel to watch how he makes it.

Andrea Volpini is a super cool, self-taught home cook from Castelfidardo, a small town in Italy. I was invited to chat with him about his YouTube channel and the secret behind his recipes – his grandmother’s family cookbook!

I also got to do some cooking with him at the Tastemade Studios. We made together, Tagliatelle pasta from scratch as well as a super easy Ragu sauce you can make in a jiffy. (You’ll never want to go back to using spaghetti sauce in a jar again!) In addition, we also made some crispy-juicy and incredibly easy fried chicken (he’ll post the recipe for this a little later on his blog!).

Tagliatelle al ragù

A typical Italian first dish, usually hand made on Sundays. Serves Four.

FOR THE RAGÚ

1 Celery

1 Carrot

1 Onion

1 lb Ground Beef or Veal

4-5 Bacon Slices

1/2 Stick Butter

(2) 12 oz cans Tomato sauce or Crushed Tomatoes (or one big can!)

2/3 cup Milk

2/3 cup Broth

1/2 cup Red Wine

Salt and Pepper to taste

FOR THE PASTA

4 Eggs

3 1/3 cups Flour

PREPARATION

Clean the onion, carrot and celery and chop finely. Place olive oil and butter in a pot and cook on low to medium heat. Add the chopped vegetables stirring occasionally. Let them sweat.

First: Sweat the vegetables

Meanwhile, chop the bacon and add it, along with the ground beef, to the pot of vegetables. Cook until the meat is browned becomes beautiful. Add the red wine, salt and pepper and add the broth Add the tomato sauce and cook for two hours on low heat, adding the milk at the end.

Add the meat and stir until cooked

While waiting for the sauce to cook, get started on the pasta. Sift the flour and make a dome on a board of wood. Break the eggs into the dome and begin to work it together with your hands. When the eggs are well incorporated, begin to knead the dough by hand for at least 10-15 minutes until the mixture is smooth and homogeneous.

Work the eggs in by hand

Roll the dough into a ball and let stand 30 minutes at room temperature. Divide the dough into two and begin to roll it out with a rolling pin until you get a very thin sheet. Fold the dough at each end and then cut it with a knife to the thickness you prefer.

Perfect pasta!

You can let the pasta rest a few hours (the dough will keep in the fridge for about a week wrapped in saran wrap) or cook it immediately.

When sauce is nearly done, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Gently drop the pasta into the water and cook for two to three minutes stirring. When the pasta has cooked, drain the water out or use tongs to remove the pasta and add it to the pan with the ragù sauce. Toss lightly to coat with the sauce. Season with a drizzle of olive oil. Serve immediately.