tagliatelle with treviso radicchio

tagliatelle alla trevisana

4 to 6 servings

In this simple but delicious pasta, radicchio gets cooked with garlic, parsley, and an Italian culinary treasure: lardo. The lardo, esentially cured pig fat, makes the vegetable deliciously unctuous as it brings together the bright flavor of the parsley and the fragrant garlic. Look for lardo at a good Italian market or order it by mail. Murray's is a good source as is Salumeria Biellese. If you can't get lardo, you can try substituting some chopped prosciutto fat and a little olive oil in its place.

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Ingredients

For the pasta:
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks
Coarse sea salt
For the radicchio:
Coarse sea salt
3 ounces lardo (see glossary entry, right), cut into small cubes
1/3 cup roughly chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 garlic clove, roughly chopped
1 (9-inch) head Treviso radicchio, leaves separated and cut into 3-inch lengths, wide leaves cut lengthwise into thirds
1 1/2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
Freshly ground black pepper
Extra-virgin olive oil

Instructions

For the pasta: On a clean work surface, mound flour and form a well in the center. Add eggs and egg yolks to the well. Using a fork, gently break up yolks and slowly incorporate flour from flour from inside rim of well. Continue until liquid is absorbed, then knead for 10 minutes. Wrap dough tightly in plastic and let rest for 30 minutes.

Divide dough into 3 pieces. Cover 2 pieces with plastic wrap. Flatten remaining dough piece so that it will fit through the rollers of a pasta machine.

Set rollers of pasta machine at the widest setting then feed pasta through rollers 3 or 4 times, folding and turning pasta until it is smooth and the width of the machine.

Roll pasta through machine, decreasing the setting, one notch at a time (do not fold or turn pasta), until pasta sheet is scant 1/16 inch thick.

Cut sheet in half crosswise; dust both sides of sheets with flour. Layer sheets between floured pieces of parchment or wax paper. Cover with paper and repeat with remaining dough.

Loosely fold 1 pasta sheet in half so short ends meet. Fold again in half. Cut folded sheet crosswise into scant ¼-inch-wide tagliatelle. Unfold tagliatelle strips and lightly dust with flour; spread on a lightly floured baking sheet. Repeat with remaining pasta sheets.

For the radicchio: Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Meanwhile, finely chop together lardo, parsley and garlic. Heat mixture in a heavy 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat, stirring constantly until garlic is softened, about 3 minutes. Remove from heat. Add radicchio and gently stir until leaves are coated and start to wilt.

Cook pasta in the boiling water until tender, about 3 minutes. Reserving 2 tablespoons pasta cooking liquid, drain pasta. Return lardo mixture to medium-high heat. Add pasta cooking liquid and vinegar, then add pasta; toss to combine and warm through. Season with salt and pepper, drizzle with oil and serve immediately.

May 2010