PASTA PARTY- CAULIFLOWER LEAF PASTA DOUGH/ CAULIFLOWER RAVIOLI IN BRODO
Any good myth of origin is always a kind of underdog tale-a rough and tumble fighter who rose up from nothing to become a champion despite the odds being stacked against them. You know, the kid from the wrong side of the tracks with a heart of gold but has been written probably because of that one time he got into a fight at the roller rink with the football captain. Well, cauliflower leaves are a lot like this: delicious, full of potential and yet often tossed aside and written off like a bad metaphor. Well, consider this recipe that come from behind movie with Coolio, and consider us Michelle Pfeiffer.
So, I was already using the cauliflower for a pasta filling and working on doing something more with it, which is how it seemed natural to also use the leaves for another dough.
These days, green doughs are fairly common, with spinach and basil being two of the most popular: so how could I make it clear that this green dough was actually made with the forgotten leaves of the cauliflowr? What if i made it look like a leaf? It's so literal, you say! It'll never work! But here at ViaMedina we ask the tough questions, and we take the big risks. So, taking small pieces of regular pasta dough I fashioned veins and laid them onto the green dough.
One quick run though the pasta machine and i have a piece of pasta that resembles a leaf, success!
Next step fill it with my cauliflower puree, seal and using a knife, fashion my leaf shape.
There it is: the little leaf that could, suddenly was.
I wanted to keep the leaf ravioli as the focus of the dish so I only wanted to use one piece on each plate. To finish, I used a few pieces of cauliflower stuffed tortellini sitting on top of a pancetta crumble, lightly blanched a few more cauliflower leaves and cauliflower flowers. I served it in a clarified pork brodo and if I can say so, I was extremely pleased with the results.
Buon Appetito!
