On Sunday I taught a farmers market to table cooking class with the Stanford Cooking Society.  We started at the California Avenue Market and walked through, picking out the ingredients we wanted to prepare for our lunch.  We decided on making fresh green nettle pasta with an asparagus and mint sauce.  Everyone wanted to try sunchokes  so we roasted them with some delicata squash and blanched leaks and made an almond salsa verde to go along with it.  We also decided to make a blood orange, pomelo and little gem salad with citrus vinaigrette.  We headed back to Story House to start cooking.

 

About 25 participants divided into groups for each dish and I walked each through the methods used to prepare each.  We used a hand crank pasta machine so rolling out the dough was a bit arduous but we managed to make about 5 pounds of fresh green pasta.

 

Very happy with the outcome and had a great time… Recipes below.

 

 

Little Gem and Citrus Salad

• wash little gems
• segment blood oranges and pomelo
• chop dill
• mix vinaigrette of lemon, citrus juice, oil, salt and pepper

 

Roasted Vegetables

• peel and slice delicata and sunchokes
• toss with oil and salt
• roast at 400 degrees F for 45 minutes to 1 hour
• flip half way through

 

Pasta

• mix dry ingredients:
  • 1.5 lb durum wheat flour
  • 2.25 lb AP flour
• cook nettles and puree and mix with:
  • 460 ml egg yolks
  • 460 ml whole eggs
• slowly add wet ingredients to dry with mixer with paddle attachment on running
• roll in plastic bags and let rest for 30 minutes to an hour
• roll out, stepping down in thickness to setting 7 (we used 7, could make thicker or thinner depending on desired thickness)

 

Pasta Sauce

• sauté frenched asparagus (sliced long and thin) and sliced red onions in hot oil with salt and tons of thyme
• when close to done, make a well and fry in green garlic
• add water to stop cooking
• dump in cooked pasta with plenty of pasta water, mint and pecorino or parmesan
• toss until creamy