Isaac Carew's homemade pasta with spicy salami sauce
He left viewers swooning after his last This Morning appearance. And as chef-turned-model Isaac Carew returns to our kitchen, he’s showing us just how easy it is to make a fresh plate of pasta for dinner.
Isaac's homemade pasta with spicy salami sauce
Recipe taken from The Dirty Dishes by Isaac Carew
Serves: 4
Ingredients
For the pasta
400g grade Tipo ‘00’ flour
6 medium egg yolks
3 medium eggs
1 tbsp olive oil
Semolina flour, dusting (optional)
Special equipment
Pasta machine
For the sauce
Olive oil, for frying
1 onion, chopped
100g fresh nduja (or else from a jar)
100ml - 200ml white wine
400g tinned chopped tomatoes
Handful of fresh basil leaves, torn
80g- 100g parmesan, grated
Method
Pour the flour into a pile on a clean work surface. Using your fingers, make a well in the top of the pile.
Whisk the egg yolks and whole eggs in a bowl, pouring in the olive oil as you go
Pour the egg mixture into the well in the flour, mixing together with a fork or your fingertips until you reach a light, breadcrumb-like texture. Continue to bring the dough together. Knead for a few minutes to strengthen the gluten – it should become smooth, silky and slightly shiny.
Once you’ve kneaded the pasta dough, wrap it in cling film and immediately place in the fridge. Leave to rest for at least 30 minutes.
Once the dough has rested, cut it in half and flatten each half with a rolling pin, until you have an almost rectangle shape, the same width as the pasta machine
Set your pasta machine to its widest setting. Flour your pasta dough and roll it through the machine twice. Then roll the pasta once through each of the settings, working your way down to the second-from-thinnest setting (or the thinnest setting if you want seriously thin pasta).
Cut your pasta into the required shape and either use straight away, or dust in semolina flour and hang so it dries out. (Dried fresh pasta usually keeps for a week or two.)
For the sauce
Heat a glug of olive oil in a frying pan and add the chopped onion. Cook over a low to medium heat for 3 minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon.
Next add the nduja, trying to break it up as much as possible with the spoon in the pan, and cook for another 2 minutes.
Turn up the heat to medium then add the white wine. Allow the mixture to reduce by half (about 3–4 minutes), then add the chopped tomatoes.
Allow the mixture to reduce again, until you reach a sauce-like consistency (about 5–8 minutes)
I love using fresh tagliatelle for this dish but dried works just as well. Bring a saucepan of salted water to the boil, and drop in the pasta. Cook for 1 minute or according to packet instructions until al dente.
Remove the pasta from the water, reserving 1–1½ ladles of the pasta water. Mix the pasta with the nduja sauce and the reserved water.
Serve with torn basil and the grated Parmesan