Saturday, April 24, 2010

The candy man?


It's pasta, not taffy.

This particular shape is known as caramelle precisely because of its resemblance to wrapped candy. Usually I fill caramelle with cheese, which is the traditional way.

But I'd just dug up these parsnips in the garden (they get sweeter if allowed to stay in the ground through winter), and decided to play around.

First step was to roast them. Then, after they cooled, into the Cuisinart.

I'd picked up some baked ricotta at Micucci, for no particular reason, and decided that might work.

Crumbled maybe a quarter pound of the ricotta over the parsnips.

Not much to look at, I know, but molto tasty. All I added was a little nutmeg, so it's just the parsnips (roasted with xv olive oil, salt and pepper), the cheese and the nutmeg, that's it.

The dough gets rolled on the thin side because this is a delicate type of stuffed pasta.

And the filling and forming goes like so. All it takes is a roll and a light wrap on either end.

The pasta landscape.

Since the parsnip was so flavorful I decided to take the ultra simple approach and just cook them in homemade chicken stock. Caramelle en brodo, if you will.

I know this doesn't look at all exciting, but it's a major tasty dish, perfect as a small plate before the entree, or as lunch with a salad. Unless I get a better offer, I'll be having it for lunch today.

Have a good weekend.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Looks fantastic - I love interesting pasta shapes, and the stuffing sounds perfect! Great photographs as well.