Happy Pasta Day! As I detailed last year, I love pasta! Since that post, where you can get 20 different pasta recipes, I’ve posted recipes for Fettuccine all’Afredo, Greek Pastitsio, fried Ravioli, Anneli Ammuddicati, homemade Pizzocheri, Beef Carbonade with egg noodles, Oreilles d’âne (French vegetarian lasagna), cheesy Croziflette, and scratch Trenette al Pesto (aka “Luca Pasta”). Now, for my 10th pasta recipe since last year, I present you Casarecce.
A couple of weeks ago, I spoke with a co-worker who recently spent 3 weeks in Sicily. He raved about the food, the affordability of travel in southern Italy, and I reminisced about my honeymoon last year. That was really the only spark I needed to know what I was going to make for this pasta day. I love interesting pasta shapes. They make eating fun, but also serve a purpose of acting as the perfect vehicle for the sauce that goes with the pasta. For instance, as seen below, this noodle shape perfectly captures the juicy tomato sauce, allowing the roasted eggplant in this alla Norma dish to stand alone and dance with the pasta in your mouth.
What was really surprising was that I found my local Wegmans had Casarecce for sale…but, the name literally translates into “homemade”. So, I had to make the pasta from scratch. What’s better, is that you don’t need a pasta roller for this meal, it’s all done by hand. Speaking of hands, I got my daughters in on the fun of rolling out the final pasta shape. It’s a fun process: just take a skewer, press down, and roll back and forth until the pasta curls up. What's best was, the way I prepared the eggplant meant that my girls loved it, too. Most eggplant dishes tend to be soggy, but these morsels held up, even after being cooked in the sauce. Find my secret below!
Casarecce alla Norma
Sauce
2 eggplants, ends trimmed and diced into rough 1” cubes
Extra-virgin olive oil
8 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
Red pepper flakes
2 tsp anchovy paste
2 cans whole, peeled tomatoes
Basil
2 tbsp capers drained
Pasta
2 cups 00 flour + more for dusting
4 eggs
Wood skewers
Parmesan cheese
Place the rack in the middle of your oven and preheat to 375. Place the diced eggplant in a bowl and drizzle with about 2 tbsp of evoo. Sprinkle with some sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper. Stir to combine and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake in the oven for about 45 minutes until the eggplant have lost some moisture and are browned. Reserve.
While the eggplant bakes, pour ½ cup of evoo into a Dutch oven, adding in the sliced garlic and cook over medium-low heat. Once you can smell the garlic, add in a heavy pinch of chili flakes, and stir in the anchovy paste until it breaks up. Then add in the tomatoes and their sauce, breaking up the tomatoes with your hands. Toss in a few sprigs of basil and a heavy pinch of salt. Continue to cook over medium-low heat, uncovered, for about 40 minutes, stirring occasionally.
While the sauce reduces, make the pasta by dumping the flour onto a clean work surface. Make a well in the middle of the flour and add the eggs into the middle. Start whisking the eggs with a fork, then begin spilling some flour into the egg and continue to mix until blobby, then fold in most of the remaining flour. Begin kneading the dough, adding flour if necessary, until it forms into a ball.
Clean your hands and the work surface, then dust the dough and counter with some flour. Poke your thumb into the dough ball. If it comes out clean, you are ready to knead. Using the heel of one hand, press out the dough away from you, then pull the top down over your other hand, slide your hand out and knead outward, then fold back over towards your body in the same manner. Turn the dough a quarter turn and continue this kneading process for about 8 minutes. You may need to add some flour if you encounter tacky wet dough. Eventually the dough will become smooth and stretchy. Once finished, wrap with cling wrap and let set for 5-10 minutes to rest.
While the dough rests, place a large pot of water over high heat and bring to a boil.
While the water heats up, and after the dough has rested, pull a fistful off of the main dough ball (placing the large ball back under the cling wrap) and press the dough out into a small even disc in your hands. Flour the counter and place the round down, sprinkling it with some flour as well. Dust a rolling pin with flour and roll it out until it’s about ¼-inch thick. Then slice into half-inch wide strips and slice down the center of the circle. Separate the dough pieces.
Dust the counter and place the sliced dough down. Using a wooden skewer, press into the center of a cut piece of dough and roll back-and-forth until the dough curls around the skewer. If the dough ever gets stuck to the counter, just peel and curl and be sure to dust the counter with more flour. Gently slide the rolled dough onto a kitchen towel and repeat the process with the remaining dough.
Once all of the dough has been prepared, place the reserved eggplant into the sauce and stir to combine. After a few minutes, taste the sauce for any seasoning needs.
Meanwhile, liberally salt the boiling water, and dump in all of the prepared pasta. Cook the pasta for about 5 minutes. The pasta will swell. They are done when they still have a little chew to them.
Using a spider, or slotted spoon, transfer the pasta to the sauce and continue cooking for another 60-90 seconds, over medium heat, adding in the capers and some pasta water, if necessary, to loosen up the sauce.
Spoon out the Casarecce onto plates and garnish with freshly sliced basil, freshly grated Parmesan and a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil.
______________________________ Copyright 2022, Brendan McCann, All Rights Reserved.
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