Fresh Pappardelle with Dimino Cherry Tomatoes
Ingredients serves: 4
300g ‘00’ flour (pasta flour), plus extra for dusting
2 tsp Dimino olive oil
3 large free-range eggs
5g fine sea salt
Dimino Extra Virgin Olive Oil, freshly ground black pepper, fresh basil
Dimino Cherry Tomatoes sauce 2 jars
200g Fresh Mozzarella
METHOD
Put the flour, olive oil and eggs in a large bowl and bring the ingredients together with your hands, working the eggs into the flour a little at a time until the ingredients come together and form a dough. If the dough is too hard add 10/20ml of water little by little till it gets smooth.
Now is time for the dough to go onto a lightly floured surface and knead hard for 10 minutes, really pulling and stretching the dough until it is silky. Wrap in cling film and chill in the fridge for 2hours.
Take the pasta from the fridge and remove the cling film. Divide into three pieces and rewrap two of them. Start rolling out the first block of pasta dough on a very lightly floured surface as thinly as you can, you want to end up with a rectangle even thinner than a two pence piece, roughly 45x30cm/18x12in. Turn the dough regularly and sprinkle with a tiny amount of flour if it begins to stick. Don’t worry if it isn’t perfect, as long as you can make some good, wide strips.
Cut the pasta into wide strips – you’ll need to make them roughly 2.5cm/1in wide and around 30cm/12in long. Arrange the strips on the trays, keeping each strand a few millimetres from the next. Repeat exactly the same process with the remaining pasta and you can leave the pasta to dry for a few hours at this point or used immediately.
When you are ready to cook the pasta, half-fill a very large pot with warm water, bring to the boil and add salt it. Drop the pasta gently into the hot water and return to the boil, moving it around with a long wooden spoon to separate the strands.
Cook for 1-2 minutes, or until the pasta is tender but firm, stirring occasionally. You can test the pasta by removing one of the pieces and cutting a little off one end to taste.
Drain the pasta in a colander and return to the saucepan. Add our lovely Dimino Cherry Tomatoes Sauce which is already seasoned and delicious and some pasta water, toss everything with a little of Dimino olive oil, Parmesan cheese and we are ready to plate. Chop the fresh mozzarella in little cubs and add them on the top of the pasta, some fresh basil leaves and enjoy it!
