Ramp pasta with anchovy, asparagus & herbs
Do I even like ramps??
I don’t know. The pressure to like and understand the subtlety of ramps is the same as orange wine. Remember that one summer we were all chuggin’ that funky shit? Ok, so whatever. Jason brings home these ramps and I was already hankering to reinterpret this Tagliata pasta dish from King. I thought it could be interesting to infuse the pasta with ramps and luckily for me, it worked out. Because what are ramps if not garlicky green onions? But let’s rewind. I’m at King and my dude has the plug and it’s all sexy ‘cause we’re sitting in J. Law’s booth (apparently) and the som is being flirty and we’re being flirty back and vibes be litty. Then these 2 stand-out dishes land that I could not help but enjoy in tandem:
Tagliata pasta with artichoke and parmesan
Asparagus spears in a some kind of red wine, anchovy (and maybe bagna cauda?) butter sauce
A week later and back to LA, I was still thinking about this…
RAMP PASTA WITH ANCHOVY, ASPARAGUS & HERBS (serves 4)
3/4 LB thin asparagus spears
6 oil-packed anchovy filets, drained
4 garlic cloves, peeled (leave them whole)
1/4 TSP red chili flake (or more! fuck it)
1/2 cup olive oil + more for drizzling (Baroncini, baby!)
3 TBS unsalted butter at room temp
80 G parmesan, freshly grated
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
4 TBS chopped mixed fresh herbs (basil, mint, parsley)
Trim off the tough ends of the asparagus spears and discard. From the tips of the asparagus spear, cut 3 inches down and set aside in a small mixing bowl. Chop the remaining asparagus into 1/2 inch segments and add to the mixing bowl. Drizzle the asparagus with olive oil and a generous pinch of salt. Toss to combine and set aside.
In a small sauce pan, heat the 1/2 cup olive oil, anchovy, garlic cloves and red chili flake on medium low heat. The anchovy will cook down and disintegrate pretty quickly in about 2-3 minutes (careful- they be splatterin’). Once the garlic cloves are evenly browned, pull them out and discard. Transfer this oil mixture to a large sauté pan (12” minimum) and set aside.
Cook the fresh pasta in a generous amount of boiling salted water, then drain thoroughly. The cook time depends on the thickness of your pasta. I would say check it every minute (at least)… Fresh pasta cooks FAST.
Heat the sauté pan with the anchovy oil mixture on medium heat. Add the asparagus and cook for about 2 minutes.
Transfer the pasta to the sauté pan and toss quickly on medium hight heat. Add half the butter and half the parmesan with a splash of pasta water and toss quickly. 1
Once combined, add in the remaining butter, parmesan, lemon juice and all of the herbs. Turn off the heat and toss again.
Salt to taste and plate it up with freshly grated parmesan and a generous drizzle of olive oil.
FRESH PASTA by Ruth Rogers, River Cafe London (serves 4)
350 G Tipo 00 flour, plus extra for dusting2
1/4 TSP salt
2 whole eggs
4 egg yolks
1 egg white (for the ramp purée) 3
6-7 ramp stems, cleaned and roughly chopped
semolina flour, for dusting4
Using a hand blender, puree 1 egg white and ramps until smooth (think pesto consistency). Set this ramp purée aside.
Put the flour and salt in a food processor and pulse a few times to combine.
Add the eggs, egg yolks and ramp purée and pulse-blend until the ingredients form a loose ball of dough.
Lightly dust a flat surface with semolina and a little extra flour, then knead the pasta dough for about 3 minutes or until smooth. If the dough is very stiff and difficult to knead, you may have to put it back into the processor and blend in another whole egg.
Cut the dough into 4 equal-sized pieces and briefly knead each into a ball. Wrap each ball in plastic wrap and allow to rest for at least 20 minutes, and up to 2 hours.
If rolling by hand, you will have to hand-knead and hand-roll the dough the equivalent of 10 times. I rolled out the dough until I reached my desired thinness and cut length-wise into 3/4 inch strips. This needs to be done in a cool place so the pasta does not dry out.
I like to use a wooden spoon or spatula to incorporate everything together, but if you’re a real one, go ahead and flip that pasta in the pan Carmy-style
I used AP flour and survived
This is my addition to the recipe so if you hate it, don’t come for Ruth!
Again, I used AP flour and it was fine