Wide pasta with lamb gravy











Pasta: The usual thing for a single serving. 

* one egg.  Half the egg white carelessly spilled out, half the eggshell used as an eggshell cup to transfer water to a bowl

* two rounded tablespoons all purpose flour + enough to adjust if necessary + minimal flour to dust work surface

* two level tablespoons coarse semolina. 

* rest

The lamb chunks were dusted flavored and fried more than a week ago. The fried chunks were unpleasantly tough. The remainder of the lamb chunks languished then were cooked under pressure which revitalized them nicely. A few days went by and the chunks went tough again so the very last of the lamb chunks were cooked under pressure a second time which pretty much disintegrated them. 

No adjustment was made to the flavor of the lamb chunks two weeks old, I think,  and fried and pressure cooked twice. I forgot to salt the pasta water. Still, this simple combination of handmade pasta and lamb gravy, or ragù if you prefer, is completely satisfying topped with  Italian Parmigiano cheese.

The cheese is old too. A block of it dried out. Looked hopeless. Days ago the block of hard Parmigiano Reggiano was rescued from desiccation by wrapping the block in a couple dampened but not wet paper towels and then placed in a plastic ziplock bag. The moisture migrated from the paper towels into the dry cheese and now the block is delicious and texturally firm and crumbly again as if the period of neglect never happened. 

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