Fresh Taccozze Pasta With Sea Bass Recipes

FRESH TACCOZZE PASTA WITH SEA BASS

Steps:

• To make the sauce: Pour the olive oil into the big pan, set it over medium heat, and scatter in the onion. Cook, stirring, for 3 or 4 minutes, until it begins to soften. Toss in the potato cubes, stir with the onion, and spread them out in the pan; cook for 5 minutes or so, tumbling them over occasionally, until they start to caramelize and stick to the pan bottom. Clear a space in the pan, and drop in the tomato paste; let it caramelize and toast in the hot spot for a minute, then stir together with the onion and potatoes.
• Drop in the celery and bay leaves, sprinkle on the salt, stir, and get everything sizzling, then pour in the cold water. Stir up the vegetables, cover the pot, and bring the water to a boil over high heat. Adjust the heat to keep it bubbling nicely, and cook for 30 to 40 minutes, until the potatoes start to fall apart and thicken the sauce.
• Drop in the cubes of fish and tomatoes, stir to distribute them, and heat the sauce back to an active simmer. Cook, uncovered, for 15 minutes or so, until the sea bass is cooked through and the tomatoes have softened and dissolved into the sauce.
• Before cooking the taccozze-right in the sauce itself-I shake the diamond shapes by handfuls in a colander or strainer, removing excess flour. Then I drop all of the pasta at once into the simmering sauce. Stir and lift the taccozze with tongs, separating the flat pieces if they are stuck together. Cover the pan, and bring the sauce to a boil over high heat; cook the taccozze for about 4 minutes, stirring frequently, until al dente. Serve immediately in warm soup bowls.

FRESH PASTA FOR MALEFANTE & TACCOZZE

Steps:

• To make the pasta dough: Put the flour in the bowl of the food processor, and process for a few seconds to aerate. With the food processor running, pour in the water through the feed tube. Process for about 30 seconds, until a dough forms and gathers on the blade. If the dough does not gather on the blade or process easily, it is too wet or dry. Feel the dough, then work in more flour or ice water, in small amounts, using the processor or kneading by hand.
• Turn the dough out on a lightly floured surface, and knead by hand for a minute, until it's smooth, soft, and stretchy. Press it into a disk, wrap well in plastic wrap, and let rest at room temperature for at least 1/2 hour. (You can refrigerate the dough for up to a day, or freeze for a month or more. Defrost in the refrigerator and return to room temperature before rolling.)
• To roll out the dough with a pasta machine: Cut the dough in six equal pieces. Keeping them lightly floured, roll the pieces at progressively thinner settings, gradually stretching them into strips about 2 feet long and as wide as your machine allows, usually about 5 inches. For easier handling, cut each strip in half crosswise, so you have twelve strips about a foot long. Lay them flat on a lightly floured surface, and keep covered with towels.
• To make malefante: One at a time, slice the strips lengthwise into long ribbons, about 1 inch wide or a bit more, using a rotary pasta cutter or a sharp knife and a ruler to guide the blade. You should get four such ribbons from each of the machine-rolled strips. Next cut the ribbons crosswise into 2 1/2-inch-long segments, the malefante. Sprinkle and toss the cut pieces liberally with flour, and lay them out flat, not touching, in one layer on floured baking sheets. Leave the malefante uncovered, to air-dry at room temperature, until you cook them.
• To make taccozze: One at a time, slice the strips lengthwise into long ribbons, about 1 1/2 inches wide, using a rotary pasta cutter or a sharp knife and a ruler to guide the blade. Next, cut across the ribbons with parallel diagonal slices, spaced 1 1/2 inches apart, forming diamond-shaped taccozze. Sprinkle and toss the cut pieces liberally with flour, and lay them out flat, not touching, in one layer on floured baking sheets. Leave the taccozze uncovered, to air-dry at room temperature, until you cook them.