This is a scaled down version of Elizabeth David’s recipe; scaled down because hers requires 7 kinds of meat, including calf’s brain which I actually had but wife banned me from putting it in diner. Modification number 2 was because I had a glut of ceps, you can replace them with portabella mushrooms or leave them out entirely.
In any case; the addition of ceps adds to the richness of what is already a very rich Bolognese dish, I served mine as a starter but you can easily make it a main course for 2 – 4 people.
For the filling
- 1 chicken breast
- 200g pork belly
- 75g parma ham
- Half glass white wine
- 1 large cep, cleaned and roughly chopped
- 75g grated parmesan
- 2 eggs
- Salt, pepper, nutmeg
For the pasta
- 400g fine semolina flour
- 4 eggs
- Salt
Roughly chop the chicken and pork and fry in a little oil until well browned. Add the mushrooms and ham in pieces, then the white wine. Cover and cook gently for 25 minutes; remove the lid for the last few minutes to let the last of the liquid evaporate. Pass the meat mixture through a mincer, stir in the seasoning, parmesan and eggs and allow to cool.
Next make the pasta. Mix the flour, eggs and salt either by hand or in an electric mixture to a soft dough. Wrap the dough and chill for about 10 minutes.
Roll out the pasta to the number two setting on a pasta machine, cut to circles and fill with about a teaspoon of filling each. For a detailed guide on how to do this, check this post. If you’ve made too many, you can freeze them at this point, otherwise boil for 4 minutes and serve covered with parmesan and melted butter. NOTE: you can also fry some extras cubes of cep with garlic and parsley and add this before the other garnish.
