Fresh pappardelle with pork sausage and porcini ragu

(serves 4)

I was recently introduced to Casoni, an amazing italian restaurant just down the road from us at Taylor square a couple of months ago. They have a great 'menu fisso' for $55 where you can try all their specialities; my favourites are their beef carpaccio, pumpkin ravioli with burnt sage and the salted caramel semifreddo with pistacchio brittle. Happy hour is from 5-6:30pm, great chance to get an aperol spritz to start the weekend! I also signed up to their weekly newsletter where they advertise their fresh pasta of the week, and it is a very smart marketing campaign. 

After the first week i signed up, I got the photo of this very tempting pappardelle with pork sausage and porcini. I love the long, silky smooth strips of pappardelle and the pungent porcini mushrooms - so off we went on Friday night for the second week in a row! I was so inspired that i tried to make it myself the next night! It's not quite the same as theirs, a little less stock and used caramelised balsamic to sweeten the dish. It's not exactly healthy, but is a pretty amazing combo ~ never thought you could use porcini like this! 

Prep time: 1hr (to make fresh pasta)

Cooking time: 30 min

Ingredients
4 eggs
400g '00' flour
30g dried porcini mushrooms 
2 C water
500g pork sausage mince (or can just get a good italian sausage but we had leftover sausage mince to use up in the freezer)
2 tsp oregano
2 tsp cajun
2 tsp salt
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
25-50g butter
1 T olive oil
3 T caramelised balsamic
1/4 C cornflour
light drizzle of porcini olive oil (or just plain olive oil)
1/4 C shaved pecorino, to serve

Method
1. Prepare the fresh pasta by placing the flour on a flat surface. Create a wide well in the middle and place the eggs in the middle. Gently fold in with a fork the mixture is quite firm, then knead with your hands for a few minutes until it is well-combined. Wrap in glad wrap and let it rest for 30 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, soak the porcini in 2C water to rehydrate the mushrooms and create the porcini stock.

3. Season the pork sausage mince with oregano, cajun and salt and leave for 20 minutes. Shape the sausage into small balls. Alternatively, de-skin the sausages (if you bought these instead) and roll into small balls.

4. Heat a pan on medium heat and pan-fry for 5-8 minutes, turning occasionally. Drain on a paper towel-lined plate.

5. To finish the pasta, cut the mixture into quarters, then roll it out from the widest setting. Roll once, fold in half, then feed through on the next setting until you reach setting number 6 or 7, then you may need to use a bit of flour to ensure it doesn't get too stick. Cut into 2cm thick strips, flour generously, then hang to dry for 5-10min.
NB. An extra hand is really handy to help catch the pasta, especially as the dough gets thinner and longer and easier to break! 

If you want to dry out the pasta to eat another time, then leave on the hanger, otherwise you should remove after 10min and flour to keep it soft.

5. To finish the sauce, clean then heat the frypan and place butter into the pan with 1 T olive oil. Remove the rehydrated mushrooms from the stock and squeeze to dry. Place into the pan with the garlic and fry for 3-4 minutes until the mushrooms are browned. Add in half the stock and sauté for another 2-3 minutes. Add in the sausage balls then add in the remaining stock and the corn flour. Keep on low-medium heat and slowly reduce the stock to a thick-ish sauce (but still a reasonable amount of liquid). Add in salt and caramelised balsamic to taste.
6. When the sauce is ready, then heat a large pot of boiling water. Add in a generous teaspoon of salt, then cook the pappardelle for 2-3 minutes until soft and floating. Remove and drain. You may need to do a couple of batches. Dress the pappardelle in the porcini oil (to keep it from sticking), then add into the sauce.
7. Serve immediately, with a sprinkle of pecorino.