The Sunday Special: Ciao Posts!
Lizzie and her parents Tricia and Peter Post go over some of their favorite restaurants and experiences from their trip to Italy for Tricia and Peter's 50th anniversary.
Lizzie shared a few details of her recent trip to Italy to celebrate her parents’ 50th anniversary on the Awesome Etiquette podcast. Here is her favorite pasta recipe from the trip and below it we’ve got an audio extra for Community Members of Lizzie and her parents discussing their trip to Italy and all the great places they enjoyed. A must for anyone looking to travel to Italy soon, or who just wants to dream about it in mouthwatering detail!
Parpadelle with Leeks and Pork Sausage
Lizzie, here, so excited to share this with you all! This dish was served at La Cantinetta Di Rignana in Tuscany. If you get the chance, go, you won’t regret it! Here is my interpretation of this delicious dish. It is a savory delight and uses limited ingredients. You can add more leeks or adjust the amount of pork. I’ve found pork sausages tend to have better flavoring than just using ground pork, but be careful what you choose, too much heat or too sweet and the dish won’t come out highlighting the savory flavor from the pork which is the goal.
Time: 45 Minutes
Makes: Roughly 4 servings
Ingredients
110g cake flour or 00 flour
90g semolina flour (Durham wheat-based)
2 large eggs
2 large egg yolks (you can ditch the whites)
2 tbsp olive oil
a pat of butter
2 large leeks, washed with white and light green portions sliced thinly
3/4-1lb pork sausage - if cased, you will remove it from the casing, if unseasoned add salt and pepper
A few sprigs of sage
Directions
Leeks & Pork +/- 30 minutes
Heat a medium-sized skillet with high sides to a GENTLE MEDIUM heat and add 2 tbsp olive oil and your pat of butter. Allow these to heat until the butter is starting to get a bit foamy.
Once the butter is foamy, turn the heat down to a little bit above LOW and add the sliced leeks. They should be covered by the oil-butter mixture but not soaked or drowned in it. Cover and let sit. (While the leeks cook, you’re going to make your pasta, see below after reading the rest of this paragraph.) I set a timer to check on them first at the 10-minute mark and then every five minutes after that - because burning them is tragic and can happen easily. When the leeks have about 7-10 minutes left to go, add all the pork. Be sure to break it up a bit to crumble it, but keep the heat low so that the leeks don’t burn. The pork is done when it’s no longer pink/uncooked in the middle (4-5 minutes) and the leeks are finished when you taste them and they literally fall apart - melt - in your mouth. Turn the heat off and everything sit.
Pasta +/- 15 minutes
Weigh out your flours and use a whisk to mix them together in a bowl. Either on some floured counter space or if the bowl is large enough to mix in it, mound your flour and create a well in the middle. Place your two eggs and two egg yolks into the well and using your fingers start to break up the egg and then swirl your finger (fingers) around the eggs in a circle. As you make your circles start moving them ever so slightly into the flour that is currently acting as a wall to the well. As you swirl the eggs, little bits of flour get picked up along the way slowly creating your dough, once it becomes too sticky to swirl, you can start kneading it. Knead until all the flour has been worked in and a finger poked into the dough ball bounces back slightly. Cover your dough and rest for 10 minutes. (You can get your pot of water boiling while the dough rests so that it’s ready once your dough is cut into its shape.)
If you have a pasta attachment or pasta maker, great! Use it. You can choose your desired thickness and shape. If you don’t have a pasta maker, your pasta might be a little less even BUT THAT IS OKAY: cut the dough into 2-4 portions and on a lightly floured surface roll the dough out to your desired thickness. Using a knife or a pizza slicer slice the rolled dough into ribbons about the width of your pinky or ring finger. Once all the pasta is sliced, it’s ready to cook. (If your workspace is small, you can do this in batches. I hang mine from chopsticks when I need to make space - see picture.)
Fresh pasta cooks in a couple of minutes so you’ll want to be ready to get it out of the pot quickly. Add your pasta when the pot of water is at a full roaring boil. Check a strand after 2 minutes, you want a slight bite (tooth) to it, but it shouldn’t taste or feel uncooked and raw.
You have two options for serving this dish: You can either add the pasta straight to the cooling leeks and pork and gently mix it in the skillet. With this option, you’ll get some pasta water right into the leeks and pork which will help bring the whole dish together. Alternatively, you can reserve a cup of pasta water, then strain your pasta and plate it. Next, add about 2-4 tbsp (or more if you want) of pasta water to the leeks and pork and mix together to make it a bit saucier. Now plate the leeks and pork on top of the pasta.
Whichever way you choose to finish the dish, a nice fresh sprig of sage is a perfect finishing touch.
And as promised for our Community Members, Lizzie and her parents sat down to reminisce about their favorite moments and of course the good eats from the trip.
This audio extra is bonus material for our Community Membership. If you’d like to access it, please sign up for a paid subscription to this publication (you can cancel anytime, though we don’t think you’ll want to!)