2022 Giro d’Italia - Stage 16: Salò to Aprica.
Welcome to Lombardy and the Italian Alps! Last night the girls and I watched the first 2 episodes of Searching For Italy where Stanley Tucci traveled through the Veneto, Piedmont and Aosta Valley regions. It was really cool for the girls to see the areas where they had sampled some of my culinary offerings (the Veneto region is forthcoming to the blog later this week), seeing similar ingredients, and to become even more connected to food and world travel. As a child’s desire moves at warp speed, they now want to be truffle hunters when they grow up! It’ll only be a matter of time (hopefully) that we can start going on trips overseas together and planting the world travel and educational bug in their brains. This year, we’ll have to settle on whatever I can cook-up in the kitchen…and we’ll be going to Epcot Center at Disney World; close enough, I guess.
The scenery in the Alps is absolutely stunning and, as I type this, the riders are trekking through a pine valley at the base of some amazing mountainous terrain. They will have 4 climbs today, 3 of which are Category 1 (the most difficult) and will end up in the mountaintops of Aprica, which is less than 8 miles south of the border with Switzerland. The cuisines again begin to mingle, and in today’s regional-specific dish Pizzoccheri, it is evident. Today is also the Sforzato wine stage. I paired this meal with a very pricey bottle, but sadly, I didn't really care for it as it was a bit too fruity and slightly sweet, so I will not recommend that.
Pizzoccheri (peets-o'kerry) is a buckwheat pasta, cut into a broad noodle (like egg noodles) and delivers that unmistakable Germanic wheaty, nutty flavor and has a hearty toothsome chew. The color of this pasta was amazing pre-cook, an amazing deep taupe green. I didn’t get to take a photo because I was simultaneously preparing a bunch of stage-specific dishes when I had my mother over last weekend. However, after the cook, it becomes more dull and gray. Traditionally, this is a hearty dish that is cooked along with Swiss chard and baby potatoes, so I set off to the farmer’s market and made this dish for you.
Pizzoccheri Casserole
1.5 cups buckwheat flour + more as needed
½ cup whole wheat flour + more as needed
3 eggs
1 tbsp AP flour
1 tbsp whole milk or cream
2 bunches Swiss chard, stalks only (reserve the leaves for future use)
1 lb baby potatoes
½ stick butter + 1 tbsp for pan preparation
4 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
4 sage leaves
¼ lb fontina cheese, cut into ½-inch thick strips
½ cup freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano
Pasta and veg prep: Place the buckwheat flour and wheat flour on a work surface and make a large well in the center. Mix a few tablespoons extra of each flour and set off to the side to mix into the wet dough, if necessary.
Crack your eggs into the well and mix briefly. Sprinkle the AP flour on top of the eggs and add the milk with a pinch of salt. Continue mixing the eggs with a fork and start to pull flour in from the sides to make a “glob” (that’s what I call it anyway).
Keep incorporating the flour from the ring until it becomes more cohesive. Once all of the flour is incorporated, start using your hands to work and knead the dough. If still fairly wet, start adding the flour from the extra pile set off to the side. Note: you may need even more flour than what you set out, it all depends on how the dough is acting and the humidity level.
Once the dough is no longer wet/tacky, and a fully cohesive ball, set off to the side and clean the board with a bench scraper, as well as your hands. Lightly flour the surface with AP flour and really knead the dough for about 8 minutes, adding flour if necessary, until smooth and stretchy. Let the dough rest, covered for about 10 minutes.
While the dough rests, preheat your oven to 400. Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and prepare your veggies: rough chop and rinse the chard stalks and peel and slice the potatoes ¼-inch thick (hold them in a bowl of water to prevent browning).
After the dough has rested, cut into 9 equal portions and cover all but 1 with plastic wrap. Working 1 dough portion at-a-time, roll into a smooth ball and press into a flat disc. Run the pasta through your rollers at the widest setting, fold the left and right sides in and run through the roller once more and repeat. Place the rolled pasta sheet onto a kitchen towel and repeat this process with the remaining portions.
Once all pasta sheets have been run through the widest setting, bring the rollers in closer by one notch and run all of the pasta sheets through the rollers (you may need to dust your rollers with a bit of flour). Adjust the rollers closer and repeat with all the dough sheets. Repeat this process through setting 4 on the rollers.
Dust all of the pasta sheets with some flour. Then, working one sheet at-a-time, stack the sheet in a ribbon (s-pattern) and slice into 1-inch thick strips. Unfurl the strips and cut into 3-inch long pieces. Set aside onto one towel.
Dish preparation: Once the pasta is complete, drop the shard stalks into the boiling water and cook for 8 minutes. Meanwhile, butter a casserole dish with 1 tbsp butter.
Once the stalks have cooked for 8 minutes, add in the sliced potatoes. Return the water to a boil, reduce the heat and partly cover the pot, and continue to simmer gently.
Meanwhile, in a small pot, combine the garlic and half stick of butter and melt over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Once the garlic is starting to brown, remove from the pot, and toss in the sage leaves, cooking for a minute or so, and adjusting the heat downward as not to burn the butter. Remove from the heat and toss the sage leaves.
Once the potatoes are tender, salt the water once more and add in the pasta, cooking oly for about 45-60 seconds. Drain the contents and pour into the prepared casserole dish. Pour the brown butter over the pasta and veggies, season with a pinch of salt and ground pepper, top with cheese and let sit for a minute.
Add in the parmesan and stir everything to combine. Flatten with the back of a wooden spoon. Season once more with salt and pepper and place in the oven. Bake for about 7 minutes.
Remove from the oven and let sit for a few minutes then serve. ______________________________ Copyright 2022, Brendan McCann, All Rights Reserved.
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