Pappardelle

Leek Ash, Leeks, Parmesan

Pappardelle is one of those northern Italy shapes that is pretty universally loved across the country and world. Translating to “to pig out”, pappardelle is an indulgent pasta meant for the hearty sauces of Tuscany. While there are dried versions of pappardelle, the best version of the pasta is handmade. And what’s great about this shape is that it is very easy to make with just a little bit of time and effort.

Pappardelle is also one of my favorite cuts of pasta, growing up I loved fettuccine and linguine, but now that I’m older, I go for the triple wide version. Since it’s spring, leeks are abundant at nearly every farmers market and perfect for so many spring recipes. But it’s a shame that we rarely use the tops and wind up throwing out so much of this beautiful allium. This recipe uses that waste to deliver an umami uppercut to a rather rich dish by turning the greens into an ash topping.

Servings: 4 - Time: ~2 hrs. - Difficulty: 2 - Take-a Your Time

Ingredients & Mise en Place

16 oz. fresh pasta dough
1 leek - greens separated from white bulb - washed thoroughly - whites halved and sliced thin
1.5 cups grated parmesan
1.5 cups heavy cream
1.5 tbsp unsalted butter
2 tbsp all purpose flour
extra virgin olive oil
sea salt
pepper

Note:
Leek ash is a great way to create umami in any dish, and so save your leftovers for a topping to try on a number of meat, fish, and cheesy dishes.

Directions

Leek Ash
Preheat oven to 400°F and situate rack closest to your primary heat source. Remove the greens from the whites and wash the greens thoroughly - which means separating each green layer to clean all the sand and silt from between each layer. Dry with a paper towel and then add to the oven and cook for around 1 hour or until uniformly burnt and blackened - some pieces may blister, that’s ok. Let the leeks cool and then add to a blender and pulse until a uniform coffee ground consistency. Place in container or empty spice jar for sprinkling.

Pasta
Divide dough into sixths and work in batches. Dust a wooden work surface liberally with all purpose flour. Using a sixth of dough, roll a sheet of pasta roughly about 8.5”x11” (a standard sheet of paper.) Dust the top of the sheet with more flour until it is coated. Lightly roll the dough up from the longer side (creating shorter noodles) and cut into ~1” ribbons. Pick the noodles up and lightly shake them to both unfurl the rolls and shake off any excess flour. Place into neat bundles on a cookie sheet, dust with a little more flour. Repeat until you have six bundles of pasta.

Sauce
Add the cut leak whites to the cream and let sit refrigerated for at least a half hour. This will infuse the cream with a little more leek flavor. Once ready, in a medium sauce pan over medium heat add butter. Once melted, stir in flour in increments to create your roux. Do not let the roux go beyond medium, you want it to just start to become golden, but we do not need it to be brown like you would for a gumbo.

Next add in the heavy cream by tempering - this means adding in a little bit at a time to make sure you don’t boil or create curds. Once incorporated bring to a gentle simmer over medium-low head and then fold the cheese in 3-4 batches. Add salt and pepper to taste - you probably will not need too much salt since there is a good amount of cheese in this recipe. You can keep this on low while you cook your pasta.

Bringing it Together
Bring a pot of heavily salted water to a boil and drop in your pasta stirring occasionally. Once the pasta begins to float, strain the pasta but reserve 1/4 cup of the pasta water.

Transfer the pasta to a deep sauté pan over med-low heat where you can combine the sauce and 1/4 cup pasta water. Stir gently to incorporate and coat all of the noodles. Once ready, divide into four portions and top generously with the leek ash - almost covering the entire top layer. Serve more leek ash at the table as you would grated cheese.