Buckwheat Pasta Primavera Recipes

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
• On a large heavy baking sheet, toss all of the vegetables with the oil, salt, pepper, and dried herbs to coat. Transfer half of the vegetable mixture to another heavy large baking sheet and arrange evenly over the baking sheets. Bake until the carrots are tender and the vegetables begin to brown, stirring after the first 10 minutes, about 20 minutes total.
• Meanwhile, cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until al dente, tender but still firm to the bite, about 8 minutes. Drain, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid.
• Toss the pasta with the vegetable mixtures in a large bowl to combine. Toss with the cherry tomatoes and enough reserved cooking liquid to moisten. Season the pasta with salt and pepper, to taste. Sprinkle with the Parmesan and serve immediately.

Steps:

• For the vegetables: Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the carrots and cook for 1 minute. Then add the broccoli; cook for another minute. Add the red peppers; cook 1 minute more. Remove the vegetables from the skillet and set aside.
• To the skillet, add the butter and the remaining 1 tablespoon oil; allow to heat up. Add the mushrooms, zucchini and squash, and cook until starting to soften, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove the vegetables from the skillet and add them to the other vegetables. Set aside.
• For the sauce: Add the garlic and onions to the skillet, and cook until starting to turn translucent, about 2 minutes.
• Next, pour in the chicken broth and wine; stir, scraping the bottom of the pan to loosen all the flavorful bits. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes, until reduced by about half. Stir in the cream and Parmesan, and allow the cheese to melt. Add salt and black pepper to taste.
• Add the cooked vegetables to the sauce, along with the peas and basil; stir to combine. If the sauce needs a little more liquid, splash in a small amount of broth. Place the cooked pasta in a large serving bowl and pour all the contents of the skillet over the pasta; toss to combine. Sprinkle with extra basil, and serve with extra Parmesan.

Steps:

• Food-processor mixing recommended, following the directions on page 160.
• Pappardelle with Long-Cooking Savoy Cabbage, Bacon, and Mushroom Sauce (page 138)-a wonderful winter pasta.
• A tomato-based sauce, such as Mushroom Ragù (page 141) or Slow-Cooked Summer Tomato and Eggplant Sauce (page 259).
• Do not smother the pasta with too much sauce.
• A few spoonfuls of chopped walnuts lend marvelous texture and flavor to buckwheat pasta. Use about 1/3 cup of finely chopped walnuts for 1 pound of pasta; see below, for details on incorporating nuts into dough.
• Hand-cut lacce.
• Dress with Butter, Fresh Sage, and Walnut Sauce (page 120). For convenience, chop up the walnuts for the sauce when you're processing the nuts for the dough, but leave them larger, in 1/8- to-1/4-inch nuggets.
• Ground nuts can be incorporated into pasta doughs with great success. Try the ones I give here-walnuts in buckwheat dough, and hazelnuts in ceci dough-and experiment with other combinations, using almonds and pecans too. Follow these guidelines whenever you are adding nuts:
• For a 1-pound batch of dough, start with a generous 1/3 cup of whole nuts (or halves) to get 1/4 to 1/3 cup of ground nuts. First toast whole nuts lightly in a dry pan to bring out flavor. After they have cooled, pulse them in a food processor into tiny bits, smaller than 1/8 inch. This will take only 1 or 2 seconds-don't grind them into a powder. Pick out any remaining larger nut pieces; crush them smaller-or eat them.
• Mix the dough by hand or food processor, as usual. When you turn it out for final kneading, spread the dough into a small rectangle and sprinkle the nut bits on top. Fold the dough over the nuts, and knead as you would normally, distributing the nuts well, until it is smooth and shiny; then let it rest.
• To roll a dough with nuts using a pasta machine: Divide the dough in quarters and roll each piece slowly, at the widest setting, twelve times, folding and turning between rolls. Then roll through narrower machine settings. If you see any nut pieces that are making the dough tear, remove them. If a strip does tear, fold it over and reroll at a wider setting to repair it. Roll the dough as thin as possible (it will never be as thin as plain dough, however).
• Cut any dough with nuts by hand, crosswise, into lacce, or shoestrings (page 168). Or fold the strips and cut lengthwise to form pappardelle, as shown in the photos on page 166.

Steps:

• Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil over medium-high heat.
• While the water is coming to a boil, slice snap peas and asparagus stems into 1/4-inch-thick pieces; leave asparagus tips whole.
• Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add snap peas, asparagus, English peas and onion. Cook until vegetables are barely tender (but not too soft or mushy), 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in garlic and cook 1 minute more. Season with salt and pepper; set aside.
• Drop pasta into boiling water and cook until al dente (1 to 3 minutes for fresh pasta, more for dried pasta). Drain well and transfer pasta to a large bowl. Immediately toss pasta with vegetables, Parmigiano-Reggiano, crème fraîche and herbs. Season generously with salt and pepper, if needed.

Steps:

• Bring broth to simmer in heavy medium saucepan. Rinse mushrooms briefly under cold water. Add mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes to broth; simmer until tender, about 4 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer mushrooms and tomatoes to plate; cool. Add carrot and sugar snap peas to broth and cook until crisp-tender, about 3 minutes.Using slotted spoon, transfer vegetables to another plate. Boil broth remaining in saucepan until reduced to 1/4 cup, about 5 minutes. Reserve broth. Discard mushroom stems. Slice mushroom caps and tomatoes.
• Melt butter in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion; sauté until tender and golden, about 8 minutes. Add bell pepper and garlic; stir until bell pepper is tender, about 4 minutes. Add carrot, sugar snap peas, mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, reserved broth and cream to skillet and bring to boil. Season with salt and pepper.
• Meanwhile, cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to bite, about 4 minutes. Drain. Place pasta in large bowl. Pour vegetables and sauce over pasta. Sprinkle with 1 cup Parmesan; toss to coat. Garnish with green onions. Serve, passing additional Parmesan separately.