It’s hard to believe that I haven’t written on here for over a year! Oh how time flies. I started full time work a bit over a year ago and between work, friends and life, blogging took a bit of a backseat.
These are unprecedented times, and I can’t help thinking that most of us either have time or money – rarely both. When I was working full time, I didn’t have time to blog but I enjoyed having money to spend eating out. Fast-forward to a coronavirus-stricken 2020, I’ve been stood down from my full time job at a local brewery, and now have plenty of time to blog.
Truth be told, while it is an uncertain time, I’m looking forward to reconnecting with what’s important to me. I’ve missed writing and photographing recipes. I’m looking forward to some downtime, tinkering about in the kitchen and some introspection and refocusing on my priorities.
It’s been difficult to see the hospitality industry hit so hard. I’ve spent many evenings running plates at busy restaurants, and loved every moment of it. Seeing restaurants stand down staff and sell all their stock from kitchen produce to toilet paper just to make ends meet has really made me realize the very slim margins that my favourite restaurants operate on.
Local producers have been hard hit too. Many rely on the buzzing restaurant trade. It has never been more important to buy local and support local if you can.
If it means paying an extra couple of dollars per bottle of wine, and you’re fortunate enough to still be able to afford that, please drink local. Many local Canberra wine growers and producers will not have a 2019 harvest following Australia’s shocking bushfire season, and with downturn in trade from the coronavirus shutdowns, they need all the help they can get.
If you can afford to get takeaway, ring your local restaurant and order directly from them so they don’t pay commissions of up to 35% to delivery service providers.
Onto happier news, N and I celebrated 15 wonderful years together last week! With restaurants closed and me having time on my hands, I took the opportunity to recreate one of our favourite meals from Italian and Sons in Braddon – a fennel agnolotti with oxtail ragu. We splurged on a bottle of Collector Reserve Shiraz. Elegant and complex, it was one of the most exciting wines we’ve tried this year, and its spice and texture was a lovely pairing to the richness of the ragu.
Their Marked Tree Red is another one of my absolute local favourites, so it didn’t take much to inspire me to hop online and support local. <collectorwines.com.au> Within two days, I’d I put in an order for a mixed dozen directly from Collector. Emma dropped off wine, in person, within 4 hours from when my order went through – that’s local love!
This is an involved recipe, but hey, most of us have a bit more time on our hands what with working from home these days. I mean, you could drink this wine with heirloom tomatoes on toast and it’d still be brilliant, but if you feel like something more of a project…
I absolutely love these little bonbon shapes, they’re my favourite pasta shape to make!
Fennel agnolotti with oxtail ragu
Ingredients
for the oxtail ragu
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp butter
- 1 kg oxtail or 300g chuck steak, diced
- pinch salt
- 1 small brown onion diced
- 1 medium carrot diced
- 1 stick celery diced
- 500 ml red wine
- 1 400g tin of diced tomatoes
- 1 cup chicken stock
for the fresh pasta
- 150 g 00 flour
- 50 g fine semolina
- pinch salt
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp olive oil
for the fennel pasta filling
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 bulbs fennel trimmed and sliced
- 1 leek halved and finely sliced
- 1 small brown onion diced
- 3 cloves garlic finely diced
- 100 ml cream
- salt to taste
- pepper to taste
to garnish
- fennel fronds
Instructions
for the oxtail ragu
- In a heavy based pan, heat olive oil and butter until melted. Add meat, a generous pinch of salt and brown on all sides.
- Add onion, carrot and celery and cook until softened and aromatic.
- Increase the heat, add the red wine and simmer for about 10 minutes or until reduced by half.
- Add the diced tomatoes and chicken stock and simmer, uncovered for 2-3 hours until the oxtail is completely tender.
the seasoning and reduce over low heat if you prefer a thicker sauce. - Remove the oxtail and when it has cooled sufficiently pull the meat off,
discarding the bones. Place the meat back in the sauce. Check the seasoning and reduce the ragu over low heat if you prefer a thicker sauce.
for the fresh pasta
- Place the flour, semolina and salt in a large bowl and mix to combine. Make a well in the centre and add the eggs and olive oil. Alternatively, pop all the ingredients into a KitchenAid bowl with the paddle attachment until a dough forms. Switch to the dough hook and set to speed 2 for a further 3-4 minutes until the dough becomes smoother.
- Using the tips of your fingers, mix the eggs with the flour, incorporating a little at a time, until everything is combined. Knead until the dough comes together and feels smooth to the touch, adding flour a tsp at a time, if the dough is too sticky.
- Wrap in cling wrap and set aside for at least 30 minutes.
for the fennel pasta filling
- Heat half the oil in a heavy based frying pan and brown the fennel on both sides. Add a tbsp of water and turn down the heat to allow the fennel to cook through. When cooked, remove from the pan, roughly chop and set aside.
- Using the same frying pan, heat the remaining oil and add leek, onion and garlic. Cook on low heat until cooked through and aromatic. Add the fennel back to the pan and stir through, making sure all the ingredients are cooked through. Pour in 100ml, and add salt and pepper to taste.
- Allow to cool, then pulse in a food processor until the fennel is the size of rice grains. Taste and season generously with salt – the pasta will mute the taste of the filling somewhat so season so that you can taste the salt.
- Place in a piping bag and set aside.
to assemble
- I find it easiest to work with one sheet of pasta at a time to prevent the sheets drying out. I find visual guides much easier to follow, so may I suggest you watch this kickass nonna over at Pasta Grannies https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BC3KkdqqvDQ
- Roll the pasta to the thinnest setting, then pipe hazelnut sized mounds about 1cm away from the bottom edge. Fold the pasta dough over and pinch on either side to seal. Press any excess air out the open ends of the pasta and cut along the long front edge, so that you end up with long roll of pasta shapes. Cut along each side so that you end up with what looks like tiny bon bons. Set aside the pasta.
- Bring a pot of water to the boil and salt generously.
- Cook pasta in batches, for 2-3 minutes. Wait for the pasta to float to the top and taste for your preference of doneness – I usually allow another 10-15 seconds after they float.
- Toss with oxtail ragu and garnish with fennel fronds.
Leave a Reply