Our pals at Rio Vista Olives sent us the incredible oil that we cook with in this post. Like everything that we recommend on our blog, we use and love their products, and hope that you will too!
The Story
Back before parenthood and pandemic, when we were able to fly around the world, or jump in the car on a whim and just drive, I’d get to the ocean as often as I could. Any long-term followers might recall that I have a particular obsession with photographing tiny underwater things, and for a while there I was diving almost every weekend. I was quicker at jumping into a wetsuit and slinging on a tank than pulling on my socks and shoes. Alas, I’ve been largely confined to land for the past couple of years, though I find myself often dreaming of the alien shapes and colours waiting out there under the waves.
A while back we made some tequila prawn sacchettoni with blue spirulina, all plated up like anemones in a rock pool. In a similar vein, I wanted this week’s tagliolini to look like something you’d see as you descend those first few metres on a rock wall. Maybe some sort of feather star hunkered down after you’ve bothered it. Note: please don’t deliberately bother feather stars.
With squid ink to colour half of our pasta, it made sense to feature some fishy stuff (yes, technically crustaceany stuff) for the final dish. So little Al selected some fine looking blue swimmer crabs, or blue manna as we used to call them back home, to form the basis for our sauce. The other half of our pasta is flavoured with good old Aussie saltbush, and we couldn’t resist teaming this up with a generous and colourful handful of finger lime.
So get into it! This is our saltbush and squid ink tagliolini with crab and finger lime, combining the zesty freshness of lime with the sweetness of crab and the saltiness of the sea. An Aussie flavoured take on a classic pasta dish.
The Pasta
It’s two-toning time; a bit like our squid ink and lemon linguine, but striped instead of double-sided. So to start off with, mix up two doughs! For an Aussie theme, we’ve added some saltbush into our lighter dough. This is one of my favourite native ingredients, and also one of the easiest to source, particularly dried. It’s a true flavour enhancer for just about anything that you’d normally add salt to.
Once you’ve kneaded, rested, and sheeted both doughs, cut the saltbush pasta into fettuccine and then lay it in strips perpendicularly across the squid ink sheets. Give the saltbush sheets a light spritz of water if there’s no tackiness there. You can lay the fettuccine side by side with no gap in between, as the final laminated roll will naturally spread them apart a little. This really doesn’t need to be precise, as you won’t notice any wonkiness in the final cut pasta!
Tidy up the edges, and then give the sheets a light roll or pass them back through the pasta machine on a slightly thicker setting, stepping back up by one or two stops if desired. Finally, use a machine cutter or a sharp knife and many cuts to form your sheets into tagliolini. If not using immediately, toss them lightly in flour and refrigerate uncovered for up to one week.
Our sauce is nice and simple this week. Just boil up your crabs, chill them out in icy water, and crack out all of the flesh. Fry up the chilli and garlic, then add in the crab and all the other sauce ingredients. Try not to get distracted tasting the finger limes. They’re a seriously delicious blend of familiar citrus and familiar bushland, and snacking on them added a good 15 minutes to my cook time.
Toss in your cooked pasta, plate it up in a twist for that aquatic vibe, and finish with a little more finger lime and salt flakes.
Wherever you are, whatever you’re up to, we hope that this week’s pasta can give you a little lift and a little colour!
Buon appetito,
– Al & Al.
Equipment
- Pasta roller and cutter (if not using a rolling pin and knife)
Ingredients
Pasta
- 100 g 00 flour
- 100 g durum semolina flour
- 2 eggs
- ½ tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 tsp saltbush dried and powdered
- 4 g squid ink
Sauce
- 2 tbsp salt
- 2 blue swimmer crabs raw
- 1 tbsp olive oil extra virgin (we used Rio Vista Olives' Gigi)
- 10 g butter
- 1/2 tsp dried red chilli
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1 tbsp verjuice
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp lemon zest
- 1 tbsp flat-leaf parsley finely chopped
- 4-5 finger limes flesh only
- 1 tsp large salt flakes here we are using Black Sea salt, coloured with vegetable carbon; if substituting with finer ground salt, ensure that you lessen the amount accordingly
Instructions
Pasta
- Mix the flours together, before dividing into two 100g amounts, each in its own mixing bowl. Alternatively, you can form two wells out of the flour on a flat kneading surface, but it will get messy once you start mixing in the squid ink.
- Combine the egg, egg yolk, and oil, whisking lightly. Pour half of this into one of the mixing bowls; retain the other half.
- Into the mixing bowl to which you’ve just introduced your wet ingredients, add the squid ink. Combine using a fork, until dough holds together as a ball. You can also use a food processor to assist in colour distribution.
- Knead vigorously for 10 minutes, then seal in cling wrap. Rest for 30 minutes away from direct sunlight or heat.
- Add the other half of the egg and oil mix into the remaining bowl of flour, with the dried saltbush. Combine using a fork, until dough holds together as a ball.
- As before, knead for 10 minutes, and then seal in cling wrap and rest for 30 minutes.
- Next, roll each dough individually through the thickest setting of the pasta machine a few times, folding over itself in between passes. Then incrementally step both doughs through to a thickness of 6, or medium-thin.
- Cut the saltbush pasta sheets into lengths of approximately 15cm, and then use a knife or machine attachment to slice it into fettuccine. Lay the squid ink pasta out flat on a lightly floured surface, spritz lightly with water, and then lay the saltbush fettuccine across it (perpendicular). Try to leave as little gap between the fettuccine pieces as possible.
- Roll lightly with a pin, trim excess pasta off the sides, and then pass it back through the pasta machine at a thick setting (around 3 on a 9-setting machine). Step up to a slightly thinner setting (4), then roll it through before cutting into 25-30cm sheets.
- Use a machine attachment or knife to cut the sheets into tagliolini. Toss lightly in flour and then transfer to a baking paper lined oven tray. Refrigerate uncovered for up to one week.
Sauce
- Fill a large stock pot with water, add 2 tbsp of salt, and bring to the boil. Drop the crabs in and boil for 6-8 minutes. They should turn orange and float when ready. Transfer to a bowl of iced water and leave for 20 minutes. Once cool, crack open and remove flesh.
- Heat 1tbsp of oil and the butter in a frypan, on low-medium heat, and then gently fry the chill and garlic for 3-4 minutes.
- Add the verjuice and lemon juice, with the crab meat, and stir. Allow to reduce slightly before mixing in the lemon zest, parsley, and half of the finger lime.
To Serve
- Drop the pasta into a large pot of boiling, lightly salted water, and cook until al dente. It should only take 4-5 minutes, and the pasta should still be firm to the bite but show no raw dough when cut into.
- Drain the pasta, retaining a little of the cooking water, and then add the pasta into the frypan. Turn the heat up to high, and use a little pasta water to assist emulsification with the sauce as you toss it together.
- Serve with the remaining finger lime flesh on top, and a sprinkle of salt flakes.
