It's hard to believe that Christmas has come and gone. And it was a busy holiday season as always filled with too much eating and lots of fun.
In an earlier post, I had mentioned that I would be challenging myself to conquer a recipe for cappelletti, which are modenese hats in Italian and are typically enjoyed in a clear broth during the holiday. My mom and I tossed around a lot of "I think" and "remember when's", until we agreed on a filling and shape. The Sunday before Christmas she and I rolled out the pasta, hand cut it, filled them and folded them. I had watched so many videos online about how to fold cappelletti and each one had a different story and a different reason why. It got me thinking, it didn't matter the exact shape or size, what truly mattered was creating that memory again and possibly inspiring a new tradition. Here is my recipe for cappelletti in brodo, with the help from my mom and of course my kitchen guardian, grandma who would have celebrated her 98th birthday this past Christmas Day.
For the pasta
Makes about two pounds of filled pasta
2 1/2 - 3 cups flour
4 eggs
Pinch of salt
For the filling
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 pound ground veal
1/4 pound ground pork loin
1/2 pound ground chicken breast
1/4 pound prosciutto
1 whole nutmeg grated
handful grated Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper
For the pasta, on a clean work surface, pour the 2 1/2 cups of flour in a pile. Make a well in the center, crack the eggs one at a time into the middle and add a pinch of salt. Using a fork, scramble the eggs and gradually begin to work the flour into them. As it gets too difficult to use the fork begin to use your hands. If the dough feels too wet, add a little bit of flour at a time, working it into the dough. Knead the dough until gathered together to form a smooth ball. Wrap in plastic and set aside to rest.
For the filling, in a sauté pan heat the butter until melted. When the butter is melted cook the three meats one at a time until cooked through. Let meat cool in a large mixing bowl for about an hour. Strain any fat from the cooked meat and place meat mix into a bowl. Using a meat grinder attachment to a kitchen aid stand mixer or a hand held meat grinder, you are going to pass the meat through until it is paste like. We ran our's through, twice. On the last go through, put the prosciutto through as well, so it gets mixed in. Once all the meat is ground to a paste add remaining ingredients and mix thoroughly to incorporate everything. Taste and adjust seasonings.
This is where it is good to work in a team because someone can work on this while someone else begins prepping the dough. Using a 1/2 teaspoon scoop, make little meatballs that will eventually be the filling to the cappelletti and place them on a sheet tray lined with parchment. This makes filling the pasta much easier and consistent.
Prep a table or bed with parchment paper that has been lightly floured, this where the completed pasta will go to dry. The pasta dough should have rested enough, cut into quarters, take one quarter out and cover the rest to not get a hard crust. Flatten this piece into a rectangle. Run pasta through a pasta machine starting on 1,until you can see your hand through the bottom of it, we rolled it through to number 7. You need to work with someone else, so one person can guide the pasta in and one person to guide the pasta out. When the pasta dough gets too long, cut it in half to make a more manageable piece.
On a lightly floured surface, lay the rolled out dough down and using whatever kind of shape cutter you may have (round cookie cutter, square ravioli cutter, biscuit cutter or a glass which is what we used), cut the shape out of the pasta, you should be able to get 8 rounds out of each piece of rolled pasta. Gather together any scrap dough and set aside to run through the machine. Fill each piece of dough with the prepared filling and now the fun. Like I said before there are many ways to fold the cappelletti, the main goal is to ensure that is looks somewhat like a hat and it is properly sealed. This is my method, fold dough covering filing to look like a half moon. Press down on the edges to ensure the pasta is sealed, if you need use a touch of water and also press any bubbles out of it. Lift the half moon up with the round part facing up, pull the two ends down and together, then create the "hat shape", by pushing the rounded edge halfway back. My mothers method, was a little more simple, after you sealed the pasta, lift it up with the round part facing up and bring the two ends around your index finger to meet and done. Continue doing this until you have filled all the "little hats".
We dried our pasta for about two hours and then placed it in single layers in the freezer. Once completely frozen, they were placed in freezer bags to use for Christmas day.
Mom made her famous chicken soup, which you can find her recipe on this blog. There are two changes to the recipe for this dish which are instead of using chicken we used fowl and we used two plum tomatoes, not crushed. The broth should be clear and the fowl gave it a thick and rich flavor.
On the day you going to enjoy the cappelletti in brodo, you will want to bring the broth to a simmer and place the pasta in it to cook, once the pasta has floated to the top, they are done.
Enjoy!
Hope everyone had a great holiday and here is to an amazing 2013!!!!
