Want go gourmet with Pappardelle? If you are not familiar with pappardelle – pronounced pa-par-DAY-lay – it is one of the broadest of the pasta noodles. Think along the lines of a wide fettuccine or a narrow lasagna which sometimes comes with curly edges. It is a cousin of tagliatelle, but a bit wider. The dried version is often folded into nests, so you can watch for those if you are looking to buy some pappardelle.
What Italians love about the pappardelle noodles is that they are sturdy and won’t fall apart and at the same time are very absorbent so they soak in all the flavors of the sauce. These noodles are not well suited to Gourmet Italian baked dishes because they are not wide enough for lasagna, yet are too wide for most baked noodle dishes.
In Tuscany, pappardelle was traditionally served when cooking hare or with a chicken liver sauce. However, since neither of those is usually on everyone’s “hit parade”, I thought I would give you a recipe that the Carrabba brothers shared some years back.
Put 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil in a pan and heat it over medium. Remove the skin from 1/2 pound of Italian sausage and tear each link into six pieces and brown slightly in the hot oil. Add 1/2 cup of finely chopped onion and a medium red bell pepper in 1/4 inch julienne cut. Cook this until the onions start to take on a golden color. Add 1/4 cup dry white wine and cook 3 minutes to let the wine evaporate. Add 2 cloves of chopped garlic and cook for one minute.
Here I add two 14 ounce cans of the diced fire-roasted tomatoes and salt and pepper to taste – along with a few pinches of red pepper flakes if you want a little heat. Bring sauce to a boil – then reduce to simmer until sauce has thickened. Stir in 2 tablespoons of torn fresh basil leaves.
Now add your cooked and drained papardelle noodles and toss well with the sauce. Now we are going to make this truly gourmet with the addition of 1/4 cup of freshly grated pecorino romano cheese and 4 ounces of crumbled goat cheese! Stir this all into your dish and you have gone gourmet with pappardelle!
Watch Chef Aldo make a fabulous creamy mushroom pappardelle!
Mangia Bene!
