Europe
Coffee at the end of a meal, sure! Who doesn’t love to finish off their lunch with a good cup of coffee?
But as we have already shown you, there are may ways of using coffee also for savory recipes , whether it be for spicing up a risotto, or as alternative ‘breading’ for a fish dish or for creating a dense cream to serve with a roast.
With this article we are expanding our suggestions for savory recipes even more: in fact, we would like to give you two ideas for preparing fresh pasta at home with coffee.
Fresh pasta with coffee: two delicious variations
We are going to talk to you about two fresh pasta recipes with another two variations: in the first version, we will prepare tagliatelle using coffee powder, in the second fettuccine with espresso.
In both cases we will see a fantastic result.
Fresh tagliatelle with coffee powder, robiola and walnuts
In this recipe we will be using coffee powder to give the fresh pasta a color and consistency that will make the dough coarse.
The sauce, based on cheese and walnuts will bring out the flavor.
Ingredients for 4 people
For the fresh pasta with coffee
- 12.35 oz of flour and extra flour for rolling out the pastry
- 3 eggs
- 2 dessert spoons of caffè in polvere Filicori Zecchini
for the sauce
- 7.76 oz of robiola cheese
- 20/25 walnuts
- parmesan cheese
- salt
- oil
- pepper
Method
1. Firstly prepare the fresh pasta: arrange in the form of a crater, break the eggs into the middle and blend them in carefully using a fork.
Add the coffee powder and continue mixing with the fork.
When the eggs are completely incorporated, proceed to knead the mixture with your hands until you have a smooth, even dough.
Wrap it in cling film and leave it to rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
2. Once the resting time is up, take the dough out of the fridge and divide it into several pieces on a pre-floured work surface.
Knead the mix carefully for a few minutes with your hands, then feed a small amount into the pasta maker, using a fairly wide setting.
At first you may find that the first sheets of pastry come out irregular and full of holes.
Fold these sheets in three and turn them round 45 degrees before passing them through the pasta-maker again.
Every time they pass through, the sheets of pasta should become smoother, and once they reach the right consistency, you can reduce the roller setting to get thinner sheets.
3. Arrange the sheets of pasta on a clean canvas or dish cloth and continue rolling out the rest of the pasta.
Then feed them through the pasta-maker, and then arrange your tagliatelle on a floured tray, winding them around into circles like a nest.
If you don’t have a pasta maker, you can simply use a rolling pin to make the tagliatelle and cut them using a knife or with a pizza cutter.
4. Put the water on to boil for the pasta.
In the meantime, in a high-sided non-stick pan melt the robiola.
Add the coarsely chopped walnut kernels, taking care to leave one or two whole for the final decoration, then turn off the heat.
5. Cook the pasta until it is ‘al dente’ consistency and, before you drain it, put two or three ladles of the cooking water to one side, which you will need later for the sauce.
Drain the pasta and mix it into the cheese sauce. If necessary, add a little water to help the sauce blend better with the pasta and continue stirring.
Add a little parmesan cheese if you like and some black pepper.
6. Transfer onto the plate, decorate with a few walnuts and a drizzle of fresh olive oil and a little more parmesan and freshly ground black pepper to taste.
Serve the coffee tagliatelle with robiola cheese and walnuts nice and hot.
Espresso coffee fettuccine with shrimps and zucchini
In this preparation, which requires the use of two different types of flour, instead of using coffee powder, we are going to use espresso to add extra flavor to the fresh pasta, which will then be cooked and dressed with a shrimp and zucchini sauce.
Ingredients for 6 people
for the fresh pasta
- 7.05 oz of flour (cake or pastry flour)
- 7.05 oz of semolina flour
- 1 shot of Filicori Zecchini espresso coffee
- 1 egg
For the sauce
- 3/4 zucchini
- 0.88 oz of shrimps
- 1 clove of garlic
- extra virgin olive oil
- salt
- black pepper
Method
1. First of all, prepare the fresh pasta with the espresso.
Arrange the flours on the work surface, break the egg into the center and start to mix it into the flour using a fork.
Gradually pour in the coffee and work it into the flour mixture. Then start to mix and knead with your hands, until you have a smooth, even dough.
Wrap in clear cling-film and leave to rest in the fridge for half an hour.
Before you start to work the dough, leave it at room temperature for 10 minutes.
2. Break off a piece of the dough and start to roll it out on a pre-floured work surface using a rolling pin, or using a pasta maker until you get smooth strips of the same thickness.
Cut the pasta with the a roller thus obtaining your fettuccine. Alternatively overlap several strips of pasta and wrap them and roll them, and then cut using a steel smooth-bladed knife.
3. Then prepare the sauce.
Peel the shrimps and sauté them in a frying pan with a little oil and a clove of garlic.
Leave them to one side, and then in the same pan, add some more oil and cook the zucchini, cut into small cubes, for around 6-8 minutes.
Just before you finish cooking, add back in the shrimps and continue cooking, adding a ladle of the water used for cooking the pasta to blend the ingredients more easily. Add salt and pepper to taste.
4. Cook the fresh coffee pasta in a copious amount of salted water and when it is cooked ‘al dente’ drain so that you can then mix it in the frying pan with the shrimps and zucchini.
Transfer onto your serving plate adding a final dash of olive oil.
Serve the coffee fettuccine with shrimps and zucchini steaming hot.
So what do you think of using coffee in savory recipes?
If you are curious to experiment and in particular try out the pasta fresh coffee pasta recipe for yourself, just take a look at our shop on line and start buying the ingredients you will need.
Because only by using the best quality coffee, will you guarantee to get the best results!
