Confit Chestnut Pappardelle
A Winter pasta with confit chestnuts as the star of the show
This is something that I cooked at home with lessons from a restaurant kitchen. We delve deeper into food with the ingredients used and cookery applied. Each recipe is accompanied by a Chef’s How To that is an in-depth guide to cooking the main event.
Chestnuts. Subtle and sweet in flavour, they are usually found lurking in desserts, alongside meat or eaten on their own. Roasting and peeling chestnuts is a labour of love, but sometimes this is the best that food can give. I was reminded by an afternoon at Westerns Laundry where we all put down tools to help Matty peel his trays of roasted chestnuts. Warm from the cup of tea and the memory I now hold, I wanted to attempt a savoury dish with confit chestnuts as the star of the show.
For the pasta, I made fresh pappardelle from 320g of homemade pasta dough (giving a 'primi piatti' sized portion). I find this worked well, particularly with such a rich pasta dish, to be followed by bitter leaves or dark greens. Eating this, we thought that other long pasta shapes like spaghetti or bucatini would be equally fitting. We also thought that the confit chestnut ragu would be delicious as a filling for ravioli or lasagne.
Confit Chestnut Pappardelle
Serves 4
either 320g of homemade pasta dough
or 280g of dried pasta (e.g. pappardelle, spaghetti, bucatini)
500g chestnuts
8 chestnut mushrooms, left whole
600 ml chicken stock (or vegetable stock if vegetarian)
225g butter
4 sprigs of sage
7 sprigs of rosemary (6 whole, 1 finely chopped)
a few strips of lemon peel
a splash of vinegar (I used moscatel)
parmesan
nutmeg
black pepper
The first thing to attend to are your chestnuts, as they take a couple of hours or so to confit. This can easily be prepared ahead of time and kept aside until ready to eat. You can find the Chef's How To Confit Chestnuts here.
If making fresh pasta, you can find a simple dough recipe here, a rich egg yolk recipe here, or even attempt a chestnut dough here. I will leave it up to you to make, roll and shape your pasta as you please.
When ready to cook your meal, have your chestnut mix and all other remaining ingredients at the ready. The cooking at this stage is quick, so it is important that your setup is foolproof. You will need two pans on the stove: one with salted boiling water, the other, a frying pan on a medium-high heat (ideally with high sides for tossing).
If using dried pasta, cook in salted boiling water and continue with Step 5 around 2-3 minutes before cooked. If using fresh pasta, cook in salted boiling water for 2-3 minutes at the same time as Step 5.
Add 300ml of chicken stock (or vegetable stock if using) and the chestnut mix to your frying pan. It should start reducing almost immediately. Leave to reduce on a medium heat, allowing the sauce to thicken to the consistency of a ragu.
Once aldente, drop your pasta into the ragu along with a ladle full of pasta water - it should look quite wet at this stage. Add the remaining butter, a few gratings of parmesan, chopped rosemary, a splash of vinegar, lots of black pepper and taste for salt. Toss the pan to emulsify the sauce and thicken until it just coats the pasta. If too thick, simply add more pasta water - it is important to keep the ragu loose as the chestnuts continue to soak up the sauce.
Divide between four, finish with a grating of nutmeg and more parmesan.