HARTFORD -- Craig Hutchinson of OINK, this week’s winner, of the 86’D: A Culinary Collision stopped by FOX61's Good Day Connecticut to make his prize-winning dish.
Cavatelli Carbonara (Serves 4)
For pasta dough:
- 2 cups semolina flour
- 1 cup warm water
- 1 cup semolina flour, for making cavatelli shape
- 1 bench scraper, plastic knife
- 1 "gnocchi" board, to make grooves in cavatelli
Directions:
- Mix water into flour in a mixing bowl and work well until all flour is incorporated. About 5 minutes.
- Dough should feel slightly tacky, but not sticky. If sticky, add flour by the tablespoon and continue to kneed. If dough isn't coming together, add water by the tablespoon till proper consistency.
- Wrap dough in plastic wrap and place in refrigeration for 20 min
- Take dough out of refrigeration, unwrap and place on a clean, dry surface
- Cut a small piece (about 1/2 inch thick) off of the dough ball and work into a rope on flourless surface about 1/2 inch in circumference, lightly dust in semolina flour
- Cut rope into pieces about 1/2 - 3/4 inch long using bench scraper
- Using the side your thumb, lightly press each piece of pasta lengthwise down the gnocchi board and push to the side
Repeat this process until you have made all the dough into cavatelli
For sauce:
- 1 cup diced bacon (preferably Benton's or a high-end smoky bacon)
- 1 clove garlic, smashed
- 1 sprig rosemary
- 1/2 cup sliced hearts of palm
- 2 cups reserved pasta water
- 1 tablespoon fresh ground black pepper
- 3 egg yolks, rid of all whites
- 1/2 lemon, juiced
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
Directions:
- In a heavy-duty, large sauté pan, cook your bacon on low heat until fat starts to release from meat
- Add garlic clove, rosemary, and hearts of palm to pan and continue to cook until bacon is brown and almost crispy. Add black pepper to pan at this point to give a light toast
- While bacon is cooking, bring a small stock pot of lightly seasoned (salted) water to a boil and drop all pasta into water, cook for 2.5 minutes (you want pasta to finish just as bacon finishes)
- Strain pasta, reserve 2 cups of pasta water, and add both water and pasta into sauce pan, cook on high heat till liquid reduces by half
- Turn sauce pan off, let stand for 20 seconds, add in egg yolks whisking quickly and moving the sauce and pasta around quickly
BE SURE TO DO THIS OFF ALL HEAT OTHERWISE EGGS WILL SCRAMBLE - Add lemon juice, parsley, and more salt (if desired)
- If sauce is too thick, add a little chicken stock or water to loosen. Sauce should be creamy and not watery.
- If sauce is watery, place pan back on very low heat and whisk until sauce starts to thicken (egg yolks when cooked softly will thicken a sauce!)
- Divide pasta between 4 bowls and top with diced Mystic Cheese Co. Melinda Mae
Garnish:
- 1 cup very small diced Melinda Mae cheese