Anolini in brodo

Start the day before with the Grana Padano broth. Place the cheese rind, the celery, a couple of garlic cloves, the bay, 1 onion and 1 carrot, into a big pan with 4lt of water. Bring it to boiling point, add a pinch of salt and leave it to simmer for about 2 hours. Pass through a coleader and let it cool overnight in the fridge.

Chop finely the onion and carrot left. To clarify the Grana Padano broth and turn it into a consommé, mix well the 2 egg whites with the grated Grana Padano and the chopped veg, and season with salt and pepper. Add this egg white base mixture to the cold Grana Padano broth.

Now bring the broth very slowly to the boiling point without mixing it any more. When the egg white mixture starts to cook, it will slowly solidify and while doing so, collect all the impurity in the broth, making it crystal clear. During the process, check very gently every now and then that the mixture hasn’t catch to the bottom of the pan. When the mixture is cooked and float to the surface, break it in the middle to let the consommé breath during the simmering. Simmer it for a couple of hours and let it reduce. Slowly and carefully pass it through a fine sieve lined with a clean kitchen cloth. Season to taste.

To prepare the filling, boil the potatoes and mash them with a ricer. While still hot, smoke the mashed potatoes by firing the woodchips in large container and place the potatoes to one side. Seal well and let it smoke for about 20 minutes.

Now mix the warm potatoes with the grated Grana Padano and butter and add the grated bottarga.

Get to your pasta. Knead the flour and eggs until you have a smooth and elastic dough. If a little too sticky on your hands, add a little extra flour. Wrap with film and leave to rest for about 30 minutes. Then proceed to roll the dough into thin pasta sheets. If you have a wooden board great, if you don’t a clean surface will work.

Slice the pasta into thick sheets and flatten them with a rolling pin. With the help of a pasta machine, roll the pasta out. (This can also be done by hand using a rolling pin and elbow grease). Pass the dough gradually from the largest setting to the narrower setting to make very thin pasta sheets. I am usually happy to use the setting just before the thinnest as I like my pasta to have a little ‘bite’.

Once the first pasta sheet is ready, place little balls of potato filling (about 2 gr each) on it and make sure they are at least 2/3 cm apart from each other. Now brush with a little water the second pasta sheet and use it (brushed side down) to cover the first sheet with the filling. During this step try to avoid the past to wrinkle too much and stretch it a little if needed to reach the edges. With your hands make sure the 2 pasta sheets stick to each other and that there are no air pockets within. Now use a small pastry cutter (anything that is circle and about 2/3 cm in diameter, even a cocktail measure) to carve the anolini. By cutting the pasta it would seal automatically very well the 2 sheets so that your anolini will not open when cooking.

When the anolini are ready, drop them in salted boiling water and cook for about 1.5 minutes. Serve with the boiling hot Grana Padano consommé and enjoy with a bubbly glass of Prosecco DOC rosé. Alternatively, the anolini can be spread on a tray with parchment and freeze. Store in a sealed bag and cook from frozen when you are ready.

Recipe by Danilo Cortellini