Home Made Paprika Pappardelle with Mushroom Ragout

I finally made home made pasta... Home made, hand rolled, and hand cut to be exact (lol). Because how long can you wait for you head to remember to buy pasta roller? It is on my "to buy" list for over 2 years - hint for the darling Santa Clause ; )))

Making pasta wasn't as difficult as a though, neither the rolling. I made paprika flavor pappardelle as a start and crazy delicious mushroom ragout aka grandmas cooking gone Korean. Pasta came out uber delicious, thin - thank to my wild rolling pin skills, and very tender. And the sauce... C R A Z Y good, so flavorful, so sticky and so...yum!

I sliced the mushroom first and then I used multi-mixer to "chop" them finely.  The secret to this beautiful stickiness of the ragout is the ssamjang paste so try not to skip it. I brought mine all the way from Korea but you can find it on line.

Pasta Dough

(2 servings)

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour

1 1/2 tbsp sweet paprika powder

good pinch of salt

1 large egg

5 tbsp water

Mushroom Ragout

300g button mushrooms, very finely chopped

1 medium onion, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 tbsp tomato paste

2 tbsp ssamjang paste (Korean soy bean and chili paste)

1/2- 3/4 cup mushroom or vegetable stock, water is fine too

(you may not need all of it)

1/4 cup light coconut milk

olive oil, for cooking

salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

chopped fresh parsley, for serving

Method :

1. Make the pasta dough. Place the flour, paprika powder, salt, egg and water in bowl of stand mixer fitted with hook attachment. Mix with the fork until shaggy dough forms. Kneed the dough on medium low speed for about 8-10 min, until the dough is smooth and silky (you can kneed the dough by hands, but I prefer mixer to the job for me). You may need add little bit more flourse if the dough is too sticky or some water if the dough is too dry.

2. Wrap the dough with plastic wrap and let rest for at least 1 hour.

3. While the dough is resting make the ragout. Using a little bit of olive oil brown the mushrooms in two batches, (remember don't crowd the mushroom, otherwise they will NOT BRWON). Place them onto a plate. 

4. Using the same pan sauté the onions until they look transparent, add garlic and browned mushrooms, cook for few minutes. Lower the heat, add tomato paste and ssamjang paste and cook for a minute stirring continuously.

5. Add 1/4 cup of the stock or water and the coconut milk, cook for a minute stirring occasionally. If the sauce looks too dry and another 1/4 cup of stock or water. Season with salt and pepper. Switch off the heat. Keep it warm.

6. Divide the dough in half. With rolling-pin or pasta-machine, roll the dough out into a rectangle. Now, you can either pass the dough through a spaghetti cutter, or roll it into a thin sheet (2 mm) and fold it and cut it with a knife. Toss with some flour so the noodles don't stick together. You can freeze them until needed.

7. Boil the pasta in plenty of salted water for just a min until al dente, then transfer into the pan with mushroom ragout along with about 2 tbsp of the pasta cooking-water.

8. Set you pan over low heat and cook the pasta for less than a minute, mixing gently until its all covered with sauce. Serve immediately generously sprinkled with fresh parsley.

Bon Appetite!