Silk Handkerchiefs with Pork Ragu

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Ragu – the ultimate Sunday Sauce, am I right? This is a low maintenance sauce that requires about 20 minutes of your time up front, followed by a long and lazy cook. Let this bubble away on your stove top for a few hours (or longer if you have the time and patience), then toss it through your favourite pasta or as this recipe suggests, Silk Handkerchiefs – a beautifully thin and absolutely luxurious pasta hailing from Liguria. Once you try this shape I promise you will not look back.

For such a light and silky pasta, a luxurious egg yolk dough is a must! This dough is a little harder to work with given the absence of egg whites, so keep a spray bottle filled with water on hand to use as needed during the kneading process.

Serves four – with ragu leftovers

Ingredients

Silk Handkerchiefs

300g tipo “00” flour
250g egg yolks (roughly 14 eggs – save the whites for omelettes or pavlova!)

Pork Ragu
1 brown onion
2 celery sticks
1 medium-large carrot
Olive oil
3 garlic cloves, slightly crushed
1kg pork mince, don’t go for a lean mince – fat is gold
1.5 cups red wine, like Sangiovese
140g tomato puree
1 can tinned whole tomatoes, drained and rinsed of their juices
2 cups good quality beef stock
4 Italian/pork and fennel sausages
3 bay leaves
Parmigiano rind (optional)
1 cup whole milk
Parmigiano Reggiano, to serve

Method

Silk Handkerchiefs  

1. Place the flour in a mound on your work surface and create a well in the centre. Add the egg yolks into the well, then using a fork begin to whisk, slowly incorporating a bit of flour at a time until the mix comes together as a shaggy dough.

2. Knead for 10 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic, and not sticky at all. Egg yolk doughs are drier so after a few minutes of kneading, cover and rest for 5-10 minutes to allow the dough to rehydrate, before continuing your knead. Give the dough a spritz with water during the kneading process as required to help it into a workable mass.

3. Cover or store the dough somewhere airtight and leave to rest for at least 30 min.

4. Cut the dough into four pieces. Working with one at a time, (keeping the other pieces covered while you do) use a pasta machine to roll the dough out until it’s roughly 0.6mm thick (typically the second to last setting on most machines – setting 8 on a Marcato Atlas).

5. Cut the sheet of dough into 8x8cm squares with a straight wheel cutter or knife to create your silk handkerchiefs.

6. Lay the handkerchiefs out on a tray lined with a clean tea towel or dusted with fine semolina and allow them to dry out for at least an hour before cooking.

Pork Ragu

1. Blitz the onion, celery and carrot into a puree.

2. Heat olive oil in a large saucepan and gently fry the pureed veg for around 5 minutes before adding the garlic cloves and cook until fragrant.

3. Crumble in the pork mince and use a whisk to help break it up in the pan. Salt generously.

4. Once the pork starts releasing its juices, add the red wine and let it reduce, before throwing in the tomato paste, whole tomatoes and stock.

5. Squeeze the sausage meat out of its casing into a bowl and use the same whisk trick to break the meat up, before crumbling it into the sauce.

6. Add the bay leaves and Parmigiano rind, if using, and a cup of milk.

7. Allow this all to bubble away on the lowest possible heat for 3-4 hours, stirring occasionally – add a touch more stock if needed but you want this to reduce.

8. Discard the bay and Parmigiano rind before serving.

Finishing touches

1. Bring a large pot of generously salted water to boil.

2. The silk handkerchiefs cook incredibly quickly – they’ll only need a minute or so.

3. Allow a cup of ragu per person – add this to a smaller pan and keep warm.

4. Scoop the silk hankies out of the boiling water with a slotted spoon and add directly to the ragu. Gently toss to coat.

5. Divide between bowls and serve with a crack of black pepper and grated Parmigiano.