For Hallie Meyer, founder of Caffè Panna, ice-cream making is a year-round endeavor. But what to eat before the gelato or ice cream? The New Yorker also runs Trattoria Panna, a monthly pasta pop-up that focuses on delicious, seasonal dishes like this one, which happens to be a great lead-in to her creative ice cream concoctions.
Pasta with Peas, Morels and Guanciale
Serves 4
Ingredients
1 lb peas
1 lb Guanciale
2 cups uncooked Morels
2 cups grated Pecorino Romano
Olive oil
Salt
500g Pasta shape with hole (paccheri, rigatoni, mezze maniche, maccheroni, penne lisce)
Pasta with Peas, Morels & Guanciale
Method
Render guanciale. Cube the guanciale into thumb size pieces, then place in a small pot (just big enough to fit all of it) with 2 drizzles of olive oil. Set over medium/low heat and let it cook in its own fat. Stir every few minutes to rotate bottom pieces to the top. This process will take about 45 minutes. Once guanciale is golden and crispy, strain the cubes onto a baking sheet to cool, and leave the fat to use for saucing later.
Boil fresh or frozen peas for 3 minutes just to take the raw flavor off of them. Place them in a blender with 1 teaspoon salt, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, and 1/2 cup of their own cooking water. Blend until smooth and reserve for saucing.
Set pasta water to boil with enough salt to taste like a mildly seasoned soup, and place a large empty saucing pot on the burner next to it.
Meanwhile, in another small pot, cook sliced morels (or any sliced mushroom) in 1/2 stick of butter. Once they are wilted and almost fully cooked, add 1/4 cup of white wine and simmer for another 2 minutes. Remove from heat.
Arrange Pecorino Romano, guanciale, guanciale fat, pea passata, and cooked morels next to your two pots for pasta.
Once pasta is al dente, Add olive oil to coat the bottom of the saucing pot (next to the boiling water pot) and turn the heat to medium. Transfer all of the al dente pasta to the saucing pot using a slotted spoon, allowing pasta water to come along with it. Stir the pasta in the olive oil and pasta water vigorously until a gloss forms. You may add a bit more olive oil or pasta water to achieve the gloss.
Add the pea passata (about 1 cup total, maybe a bit more) and 3 tablespoons of guanciale fat to the pasta and continue to shake the pot and mix vigorously (this is the next step of the saucing and glossing!). Turn the heat off and allow steam to come out of the pasta.
Add 1/2 cup Pecorino Romano to the pasta, and mix quickly, adding more water and oil as needed to achieve a glossy sauce, without allowing the cheese to coagulate. Add 1/2 of the guanciale and mix.
Immediately pour the pasta into a serving bowl, top with morels and their juices and more guanciale. Enjoy!