MASTERCLASS VIDEO
20:57 | Boiled Lemon, Mackerel and Egg Pasta
Recipe by Palisa Anderson
This dish hangs in the balance of having things already prepared and waiting in your fridge. So prior to making this dish, try to have these ingredients on hand which can be made up to a month before cooking.
Pre-preparation
Fish
Rub 1tbs salt over 200gm of white fish.
Cure a couple of fillets of any fish in the mackerel or cod family. These works particularly well if you can stick it in the sun for a couple of hours under a colander so flies don’t get to it.
Lemon
Boil 1 lemon covered in water for 30-40min depending on size. Keep the liquor and drink it or save to add bitter, sour and minerally flavours to anything. Store the lemon in the back of the fridge where it is coldest in an airtight container for up to a month (I’ve had one not go mouldy until the 2-month mark).
Capsicum
Dry roast a whole red capsicum in the oven for 1 hour or until it has softened completely. After it cools it will then come apart easily so that you can take out the seeds and peel off the skin. Store in its liquor for up to a month in an airtight container/jar in the fridge.
Confit cherry tomatoes
On the farm we have an excess of small wild cherry tomatoes all year round so when I have enough to fill a baking tray, I confit them with EVOO, a few garlic cloves and a sprinkle of salt. I roast them on low heat 120C for 3-4 hours. These can be frozen if not used or stored in the fridge for up to 3 months covered in oil.
Ingredients
Pasta
460g organic Khorasan flour
260g whole eggs (duck eggs preferred)
2 egg yolks
1tbs Celtic sea salt
Fish and Sauce
200g of cured fish fillets
Boiled lemon
Confit cherry tomatoes
Roasted peppers
6 cloves garlic, crushed and roughly minced
2 medium eschallots
10 large green olives (cerignola)
1tbs of salt
1 handful of capers and caper berries
White wine. ¼ to ½ bottle recommended
Chardonnay vinegar
1 packed cup of parsley or celery leaves
Ground white pepper
Extra virgin olive oil
Method
Pasta
Sift flour and salt on a clean bench top and make a mound. Create a well in the flour with the back of a large spoon. Beat eggs and extra egg yolks together then pour into the centre of the well. Using a fork, start carefully beating the eggs into the rim of the flour until it is a shaggy mess.
With a scraper in one hand, begin to integrate the dough together in a clockwise direction, bringing all the excess flour together into the dough. Using your free hand, start kneading the dough in towards your body.
Keep folding the dough in towards you while kneading with the heel of your hand away from you in a clockwise manner. Do this vigorously until you’ve worked up a sweat and don’t stop to rest!
Continue for another 5-10 minutes until you can feel the dough becoming springy and the colour starts to lighten up. Then wrap the dough very tightly in some compostable cling wrap.
Rest the dough for 15-30 minutes on the bench top.
Unwrap your dough and cut it in half with the scraper. Wrap one half back up tightly. Take the remaining dough and start to knead again in the same manner. It will be a lot firmer and springier to knead. Keep working the dough vigorously for another 10-15 minutes. Wrap the dough and place into the fridge. Repeat with the other dough ball. These will keep in the fridge for 2-4 days or you can roll them all out at the same time, dry them and store them for well over a month.
Rolling out the pasta
Take the pasta out from the fridge and bring to room temperature for at least 30 mins. Set up the Smeg pasta attachment on the mixer. Dust some flour onto the bench. Cut pasta into 4 even segments. Take one segment and leave the remaining three wrapped up to keep from drying out. With the heel of your hands, flatten the dough enough to feed it through the first setting of the machine. Pass through and fold together. Do this at least once or twice on each setting working the dough thinner and thinner until setting number 6.
Keep dusting with flour so the pasta does not stick together. Roll the sheet into a roll and cut into 2cm widths. Divide the pasta and keep separated with flour.
Pasta Sauce
For the pasta, bring a largish pot of water to boil with a liberal amount of celtic sea salt.
Place a pan on medium to high heat. When hot, add olive oil and pan fry the fish skin side down. Cook until the skin is golden then turn and cook for another couple of minutes until firm. Remove from the pan and place onto a plate.
Into the same saucepan on medium heat, sauté the garlic and shallots with a liberal amount of olive oil until they are golden, add the capers, olives, chopped up boiled lemon, confit tomatoes with their oil and wine. Keep on medium heat for 10 minutes and then add the fish while flaking it up with the back of the wooden spoon. Add the roasted peppers. Sauté for another couple of minutes.
While the fish is being prepared, drop the pasta into boiling water for a few minutes and then drain. Place pasta directly into the pan with the sauce. Fold the sauce gently into the pasta along with the parsley or celery leaves.
Serve with a good sprinkling of white pepper.
The Digital Chef Masterclass Series is presented in partnership with Smeg Australia.