Fine Dining: Capunti e Polpettine

One thing I haven't written about yet is food. Which may be surprising, because I am expert eater. I like to eat, and I occasionally like to cook. So I thought it would be fun to periodically document my experiences in the kitchen. What I (try to) make. How it turns out. What I learn.

This first recipe comes from the October 2012 issue of a magazine called La Cucina Italiana (by the way, I am partial towards Italian food). Check out the website lacucinaitalianamagazine.com, where just the home page will make your mouth water. The recipe is simply titled Capunti e Polpettine, where capunti is the type of pasta and polpettine are meatballs. I did not tackle this recipe alone; I was assisted by the lovely Marianne Royce. And as I will explain, it is the kind of recipe that is much easier with two people.

Without further ado, here a look at the preparation of Capunti e Polpettine:

To make the pasta, you need:

2 cups of durum flour

2/3 cup of WARM water

1/4 tsp sea salt

One of the reasons we picked this recipe was for the pasta. We wanted to make pasta from scratch, but since I lack any pasta-forming apparatus, it had to be a noodle we could shape by hand. Interestingly, noodles shaped by hand generally require a flour made from durum wheat (which, if you're not a flour expert, is different from what you traditionally buy at a supermarket). The difference has something to do with the amount of gluten in the flour, which affects its durability, or something. Because of this, the dough doesn't have to sit for hours after being formed; the pasta can be shaped right away. If you google capunti you'll see that they are sort of supposed to look like empty edamame pods. However, as you'll see, my pasta-shaping skills need a little work.

 

The pasta came out a little thicker than I think it was supposed to. Not a big deal, but it sort of affected how well it cooked later on. This was my very first time shaping dough, however, so I have to be lenient.

After the pasta is formed, we just put it aside and got working on the polpettine.

For the meatballs and sauce, you need:

2/3 lb of ground veal

1 large egg

fine sea salt

3 tablespoons extra virgin oil

1 medium onion thinly sliced

1/4 teaspoon sugar

1/2 cup of beef broth

1 lb of capunti

3/4 cup of fresh basil

freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano or grano padano

This is the part where having a second person makes life a lot easier. All at once, water is put up to boil for the pasta, an onion is sliced and put on the skillet, the veal and egg is mixed and then has to be made in to many little balls. One skill I lack is multitasking, so if you're going to tackle this recipe alone, it would probably be wise to keep a checklist of things to do in the right order, so that you don't forget anything.

The balls, being tiny, do not require a lot of time to cook. The noodles, in this case, took a long time because they were so thick. And even when they were done, they were a little chewy.

As with most pasta dishes, the final product is colorful and enticing. I was afraid, after putting it all together, that it wouldn't be enough for four people. But since the noodles were heavy, they were more filling than dried pasta usually is. If I had to rate the job we did, as far as following the directions, and getting the correct final product, I would give us a 90%. Really the only thing that should have been a little different was the shape thickness of the pasta.

However, the dish itself was not quite what I hoped it would be. The taste was good, we all enjoyed it, and it was definitely something different. But looking back, I do not think the finished product was worth preparation. Forming the noodles was the bulk of the preparation. It took about an hour to knead the dough and then roll it out, cut it, and shape it all. I enjoyed this and would happily do it again. But the meatballs and the sauce were too simple. The veal required no seasoning, and the taste was sort of masked by the beef broth. There was no cohesion of flavors that one typically expects from an Italian sauce; the beef broth was overwhelming and was only mildly enhanced by the onions and the basil. So my rating for the, let's say, excitement, of the dish, is maybe a 75%; it was new and different, but it didn't blow my mind.

Would I make this meal again? Yes, but only if I skip making the pasta and just use something I can buy at the store. The recipe works better as something to whip up quick. But the time and effort that goes into the pasts really deserves a more interesting sauce to go with it. Also, I may just replace the veal with plain beef and some seasoning.