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How to Make Orecchiette Pasta with Vegetables

How to Blanch and Shock Asparagus

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Todd Gray
Executive Chef/Co-Owner, Equinox
http://www.equinoxrestaurant.com  
202-331-8118

Since opening Equinox in 1999 to universal acclaim, Todd Gray has emerged as one of the surest culinary talents in the nation's capital, as well as a tireless champion of sustainable farming and fishing practices, and a passionate promoter of local, mid-Atlantic foods. Gray practices what he preaches every day, and Equinox is widely acclaimed as an oasis of sophisticated yet unpretentious seasonal cuisine.

With an artist's vision of the beauty in both his raw ingredients and his finished plates, classical training in culinary techniques gained in DC's top French and Italian kitchens, and a down-home Virginia boy's appreciation for food that just plain tastes good, Todd Gray is the culinary mastermind of Equinox, infusing the atmosphere with his passion for the bounty of the Mid-Atlantic. Todd continues to work with local farmers developing food of all varieties, form lettuce to beef, taking personal stock in the animals and produce being raised.

Gray's cooking has earned him five nominations for the prestigious Best Chef, Mid-Atlantic award from the James Beard Foundation. He also is a four-time nominee for Chef of the Year from the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington. Equinox has consistently been rated one of the city's top restaurants by many local publications, and has appeared on numerous "best of" lists in national epicurean magazines. Equinox has achieved Wine Spectator's Award of Excellence six years in a row, and is consistantly recognized with the Award of Excellence from the Distinguished Restaurants of North America (DiRoNa). Todd has also just received a nomination for Chef of the year through the RAMW for 2008

How to Blanch and Shock Asparagus

 

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Asparagus

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How to Blanch and Shock Asparagus

Ingredients

2 cups semolina flour
1 tablespoon of salt
2 cups of warm water
Butter
Olive oil
Shallots
Garlic
Asparagus tips
Rainbow swiss chard
Diced carrots
1/2 cup of heavy cream
Parmesan Reggiano

Instructions

1. Add the flour to a mixer, turn it on low and add the salt and warm water. When the dough starts to pull away from the side increase the speed to a number 4 on the mixer.


2. Put the dough on a floured work surface and being kneading it. Wrap the dough and place it in the fridge for at least one hour or overnight.


3. Cut the dough into pieces and roll the pieces into even cylindrical shapes. Cut the cylinders into small quarter inch rounds and push the dough into ear-shaped pieces to form the orecchiette pasta.


4. Put salt into boiling water and drop a wire basket filled with pasta into the water. Have a bowl of ice water next to the boiling pasta. When it is cooked for 4 minutes, plunge it into the ice water and shock it for 30 seconds. Toss the pasta in a bowl with olive oil.


5. Cut the asparagus into 1 inch lengths. Salt the boiling water and place the asparagus into a wire basket in the water. After 60 seconds, remove the basket and plunge it in the ice water.


6. Place a pan on medium heat and add olive oil and butter. Add shallots and minced garlic and saute for a minute. Add the Swiss chard, asparagus and diced carrots.


7. Add the orecchiette pasta to the pan with pepper, mustard and heavy cream. Mix the pasta, vegetables and sauce together. Let it simmer for about a minute.

 

 

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Transcripts

Todd Gray: I am Todd Gray from Equinox Restaurant and today we are preparing orecchiette pasta with spring vegetables. I am going to start by preparing our asparagus and cutting this asparagus into one inch lengths. You are going to need a good knife, something as sharp knife. A dull knife is not your friend in the kitchen. You want to have something that has good edge on it, has good balance. I am actually using a Henckel knife, but any good knife would suffice.

So lets start by cutting the tips at one inch length then we will go down the body of the asparagus and cut it into to one inch. We will cut again till we get down to the bottom. We dont want to use the tough fibrous part of the asparagus thats on the bottom. Push this small pile aside and we will start with this last pile here, one inch, one inch, and one inch. Take them, place them into our basket. All are ready for blanching and we will head over to the range.

We now are going to be blanching and shocking our asparagus tips. They all have been cut into about one inch length. We are looking for good firm asparagus, good true green color, no bruising or soft spots. One important thing with our green vegetables again is the salt. Always salt the water when you are boiling green vegetables, two reasons, it gives seasoning to the vegetables much like out pasta and as well the salt is going to help to preserve the natural chlorophyll inside the vegetables.

Now that our water has been salted, we take our asparagus tips into simmering salted water and allow them to cook. We are going to need about 60 seconds to blanch the asparagus tips. I kind of like my asparagus a little bit on the crunchy side, we are looking for an al dente vegetable so I say 60 seconds. If you would like to have a little bit of more cook then I would recommend that you cook it about a minute- and-a-half to two minutes. Pull our asparagus out. Asparagus is into our ice bath, arrest that cooking. It starts to chill our asparagus tips. Now if this has been complete, in our next clip we are going to start to pasta sauce. I will show you how to finish your orecchiette.

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