Mushroom Agnolotti – recipes and wine pairings

In many ways, Italian and French food have a lot in common. Often wholesome family recipes are passed down from generation to generation.

Serves 4-5

Ingredients:

For the Filling:

• 300g white mushrooms (or any edible wild mushroom)

• 60g grated Parmesan

• 50g fresh breadcrumbs

• 1 spring onion

• 1 garlic clove

• 1/2 bunch chives

• 3 tbsp cream

• A handful of chopped walnuts

• Salt and pepper

For the pasta dough:

• 500g white flour

• 4 whole eggs

• 3 tbsp water

• 1 tsp salt

• 1 tsp olive oil

For the rocket pesto:

• 1 small garlic clove

• Pinch of pepper

• 20g toasted hazelnuts

• 80g rocket

• 30g grated Parmesan

• 125ml extra-virgin olive oil

Method:

1 To begin making the pasta, in a large mixing bowl add the flour, salt, olive oil and beaten eggs. Mix together by hand until you obtain an elastic dough, you might need to add a few tablespoons of water to help kneed properly.

2 Wrap the dough in cling-film and rest overnight in the fridge.

3 For the filling, wash and chop 3/4 of the mushrooms. Cut the remaining mushrooms into small cubes and leave aside in a mixing bowl.

4 Add to this bowl the grated Parmesan, chopped walnuts, breadcrumbs and chopped chives.

5 Chop the garlic and spring onion as finely as you possibly can before pan frying in olive oil.

6 Add the chopped mushrooms and season. Once the mushrooms are cooked and have rendered all their water; deglaze with 3 tbsp. of cream.

7 Mix the cooked mushrooms in a blender until you obtain a smooth purée. Once the purée has cooled down you can mix it into all the other ingredients. Set the filling aside for at least a couple of hours in the fridge before using.

8 To finish off the pasta, take it out of the fridge and roll out the dough as finely as you possibly can; (it is much easier to use a pasta roller if you have one) the dough will fight you and bounce back but do continue until 2 millimetres thick. Cut out squares of 8 cm using a sharp knife. You are then ready to add 1/2 a tbsp. of filling in the centre of the squares. Brush a bit of water on the outskirts of the pasta sheets and fold over diagonally. You should obtain crossed top agnolotti. (see picture)

9 Cook in boiling salted water for 4 minutes.

10 For added flavour as well as making the plate look beautiful take a handful of mushrooms and cook in olive oil on a very heated pan to get some colour on them. After a few minutes reduce the heat and add a tsp of butter and chopped garlic.

11 In a blender add all the ingredients for the pesto and blitz until smooth.

12 Scatter the golden mushrooms and dot the pesto across the plate.

• See all Michel Roux Jr recipes on Decanter.com

• See Aristide Spies MS wines to match with this recipe

Translated by Leo / 孔祥鑫