Ciao, and konnichiha!
It’s been a while since we tried out something a little different, so this week we’re taking a love of dumplings and colourful things, and mixing that with pasta in our Japanese-inspired pork, banana prawn, and shiso matcha casoncelli with rib and red radish broth.
We’re also delighted to be featuring Dirty Clean Food once again! If you missed out on reading about why exactly we’re so excited by regenerative agriculture, then check out my ramblings in our Handcut Pappardelle with Three Meat Ragù post. In short though, regen ag is how we can eat our way towards saving the planet, and DCF are a fine bunch of humans making this happen by connecting innovative growers to mindful consumers. And while they’re local to Western Australia, regen ag is something you can get behind wherever you are.
The Ingredients
This weeks’ pasta is a Japanese-inspired dish of casoncelli made from a matcha dough, and filled with pork, banana prawn, and shiso. It’s served in a simple rib and red radish broth, and garnished with sour plum, puffed quinoa, and fried shiso leaves. More importantly, it showcases a whole heap of delicious ingredients.
Click around on the map to read a little bit more about our main ingredients, and see where they come from!
The Pasta
Our broth this week is very simply rib and radish. Give the ribs a quick boil and rinse before you drop them in with the radishes, garlic, vinegar, and peppercorns. Although typically made with daikon, we’ve use red radishes to give the broth a gentle pink colour.
Hang on to those ribs when you strain the broth, as the meat will be blitzed together with the prawns, shiso, ginger, and other filling ingredients.
For something a bit different, our dough is coloured with matcha, and uses stoneground flour. Stoneground is a little trickier to work with, as it doesn’t have the stretch that a more processed flour would, but you’re rewarded with a fantastic flavour and texture.
Our casoncelli are made from 6cm squares of pasta, with a large dollop of filling in each corner. To shape, fold the corner with the filling over itself, and roll towards the centre of the square so that the opposite corner just peaks out, then press down on either side of the filling to seal the outer edges.
We cooked our casoncelli pot-sticker style, for some crunch, and fried a few shiso leaves as the oil warmed up, to use as a finishing garnish.
Puff your quinoa, then plate everything up with a few colourful cornflowers and one pickled plum per person.
Enjoy, and happy Sunday!
– Al, Al, and El.
Ingredients
Broth
- 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
- 400 g spare ribs crosscut
- 2.5 litres water
- 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
- 4 garlic cloves smashed
- 1 bunch red radish thinly sliced
- Salt and pepper to taste
Pasta Dough
- 400 g white stoneground flour
- 3 eggs
- 3 egg yolks
- 35 g matcha powder
- 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Pasta Filling
- 200 g pork meat retained from broth spare ribs
- 100 g banana prawns meat
- Two handfuls shiso leaves
- 2 tsp grated ginger
- 1 spring onion chopped
- 1 tsp sesame oil
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- 1 egg
- Salt and pepper to taste
To Plate
- 8 tbsp olive oil extra virgin
- 4 pickled Japanese plums umeboshi
- 1/4 cup quinoa
- 1 tablespoon water
- Small handful dried cornflower
Instructions
Broth
- Add the ribs to a large pot of boiling water, and boil for 4-5 minutes. Drain and rinse under cold water.
- Bring 2.5 litres of water to a boil in a large pot, with the ribs, garlic, vinegar, and peppercorns. Season with salt, to your preference. Drop to a low heat and simmer for one hour, allowing the volume to reduce to around half.
- Add the radish and cook for another 30 minutes.
- Remove and retain the ribs, and strain the broth through a colander and cheesecloth.
Pasta
- While the broth cooks, form a flour well, and add all other dough ingredients into the centre. Combine with a fork or your fingers, and form into a shaggy ball. Knead vigorously for 10 minutes. Lightly wet your hands if the dough seems too dry, or add a little flour if too wet. Seal in cling wrap and rest for 30 minutes.
- Remove the meat from the ribs, then blend it together with the prawns, shiso leaves, ginger, spring onion, egg, breadcrumbs, sesame oil, and soy sauce. If too dry, add enough water to achieve a smooth consistency. Season with salt and pepper.
- Separate the dough into 4 equal pieces, and then roll through the machine one at a time, keeping the others sealed until required. Begin by passing it through the thickest setting a few times, folding over itself in between passes, before stepping through to a medium-thin thickness.
- Cut the pasta sheets into squares of 6 cm, and then spoon a grape-sized dollop of filling into one corner of each.
- To form into casoncelli, fold the corner with the filling over itself, and roll towards the centre of the square so that the opposite corner just peaks out. Press down on either side of the filling to seal the outer edges.
- Heat 2 tbsp of olive oil in a medium-sized frypan, on medium-high heat, and then carefully fry a few leftover shiso leaves; remove as soon as they turn a bright green, as little as 20 seconds. Transfer to drain on paper towels. These will be used to garnish.
- Next, fry the pasta in batches of around 7-8, until the undersides are golden brown and crispy. Add 1/2 cup of water, cover, and cook for 3-4 minutes until all water has been absorbed or evaporated and pasta is al dente. Repeat until all are cooked, adding 2 tbsp of oil for each batch.
Plating
- To puff the quinoa, mix it with the water until evenly soaked; heat a pan on medium-high.
- Thinly spread the quinoa in the pan, and break it up gently as it begins to crackle. Remove as soon as it begins to brown – this should only take a few seconds.
- Serve the pasta in warmed broth, with one salted plum per person, garnished with the puffed quinoa, fried shiso leaves, and cornflower.
