I'm often very loose with ingredients. Until I'm not. Ingredients matter. We revisited cavatelli again using ricotta, 00 flour, and pecorino cheese. Strangely we have made blue cheese cavatelli before but not a hard cheese one. Pecorino has a grassy, floral, barnyard saltiness that can hold its own in almost any medium. It seemed a good choice to use to flavor our dough.
I kneaded together 450 grams ricotta cheese, 450 grams of 00 flour, and 50 grams of grated pecorino cheese. Then I vacuum sealed the dough to expedite the hydration. I rolled the dough into a sheet, cut it into strips, and cut the strips into pieces. Then I hand rolled the cavatelli on the gnocchi board. I'm a huge fan of hand rolling cavatelli. I enjoy the process.
The cavatelli retained the flavor and aroma of the pecorino. They were well seasoned. And they were more tender than usual. I believe this is a result of using the 00 flour, but it could also be influenced by the fat from the pecorino. These were exceptional cavatelli with an intense flavor and subtle texture. It looks like we will be looking at all our ingredients more closely again.
Years Past
April 27, 2005
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