How to make Flour + Water Garganelli with Prosciutto and Peas

Oh my oh my. If you are looking for a change up from a traditional tomato sauce in your pasta, this recipe should be on the very top of your list. Even if you cheat and get store bought penne (strongly suggest against because this is a fun pasta to make), this is a game changer for a sauce that can me put together fairly quickly and have your friends in aw.

After doing a few recipes and doughs from here, this will probably be the first place I go when everything reopens.

Go try this, seriously ridiculous.

Cookbook – Flour + Water

Ingredients –

Garganelli Pasta – Basically a hand rolled penne – Penne can be store bought, but come on, give this a try.

Flour + Water Egg Dough

Pea Puree –

• English Peas – 5oz (130 grams)
• Pea shoots – 1/2 Cup (55 grams)
• Whole Milk – 1 tablespoon
• Water – 1/4 cup
• Salt

To Finish –

• Olive Oil – 2 tablespoons
• Prosciutto – 3oz (85 grams) – Diced
• Green Garlic – 1tbsp – OR – regular garlic – 1 1/2 tsp
• Spring Onion – 1 1/2 oz – diced into 1/8 inch pieces
• Chicken Stock – 1 1/2 cups – I used store bought
• English peas – 5oz (130 grams)
• Butter – 4tbsp
• Baby arugula – 3 cups (50 Grams)
• Salt
• Black pepper
• Fresh Parmesan

Tools –

• Pasta Roller – I used an Imperia, but upgrades to the Kitchen aid rollers
• Pasta drying rack or baking sheets – I use the two tier version of this rack and it is amazing. If you do not have a drying rack, use a baking sheet lined with semolina flour so nothing sticks
• Pasta wheel cutter or chefs knife
• Gnocchi board – (mandatory)
• Blender or immersion blender –
• Chopstick, or if your gnocchi board came with a small cylinder shaped stick, that one. A straw can probably work as well

Step 1 – Make the dough

Follow the recipe here: Flour + Water Egg Dough

In all transparency, I would make the dough and roll the pasta one day, have it dry overnight, and then finish the recipe the next day. the next step of rolling the garganelli takes a lot longer than you think, so just a heads up. I usually put on headphones when I am making shaped pasta because I need to kind of get in the zone for a bit.

After setting for at least 30 minutes – roll out the pasta using the instructions in the dough recipe. You will want the dough to be just transparent, for me that was on the second to last setting. If you feel the dough is paper thin, you have gone too far.

Step 2 – Make the Garganelli

What a great pasta. Easily one of my favorites and one of the most satisfying when showing friends. Dry easily and can be stored and used for the future.

Even though this is fresh pasta, I highly recommened letting these fully dry and harden (will resemble store bought hardness) because they are easier to cook later on and will still have the same amazing taste of fresh pasta.

Once the dough is rolled to the right thickness, let’s roll some garganelli. Lay the dough flat on your surface, and cut the dough into small, slight rectangular shapes, about 1.25 x 1 inch. (pictures at the bottom). They do not have to all be perfect, you are going to start eye balling it after a few.

Space a square on the chopstick or stick you are using, start with a point on the rectangle. Continue to roll over the stick until it starts to resemble penne. Try and roll this almost like a tube down the stick, the motion is not straight up and down on the stick. Follow the pasta down the stick with your fingers and semi seal. To fully seal the pasta, roll it on the gnocchi board with some pressure, but not too much as that will flatter the noodle. Set aside on your drying rack.

Done! Not bad right? Now just repeat a few hundred times. You’ll get pretty good at it by the time you are done with 1/4 of the dough, repeat for the rest.

Like I said above, I would do this step the day before, you are going roll A LOT of garganelli with the dough and it takes a good amount of time.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Step 3 – Pea Puree

Place the peas and pea shoots in boiling water for 2 minutes, transfer to an ice bath until completely cool. Put the peas and shoots in a blender or immersion, add the milk, and begin to puree. Add a little water throughout the process to achieve a smooth texture, should have about 1 1/2 cups.

Set aside in the fridge until you are ready to use.

• 

• 

Step 4 – Finish

Cut all your ingredients in advance. Heat a large pot of salted water to boiling, heat a ~12 inch pan with olive until over medium high until hot.

Add the prosciutto, it should immediately sizzle, cook until crispy which should be about a minute. (IF using store bought pasta, add the noodles to water when you add the prosciutto. Fresh pasta gets added later) Add the garlic and spring onions for about 5 minutes. With the fairly high heat, you will need to stir the mixture to ensure it does not burn.

Add the stock, boil over medium and let the stock reduce in volume. A few minutes, increase the heat if needed. Once reduced, add the peas and throw in the pasta into the water.

Do not cook all the way through since we are finishing the noodles in sauce for a few minutes. If the noodle still feel slightly undercooked, that is okay. Cook noodles for 2-3 minutes (I did mine for 2), transfer to the sauce pan. Cook for about 2 minutes. Add the butter and pea puree, swirl to combine fully. Mix until all noodles are properly sauced.

Turn off the heat and gently fold in the arugula. Add in the lemon juice, season with salt and pepper. Grate fresh parm and serve.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Holy crap. Do this, please please please do this. Enjoy! Let me know what you think below.

And for the ratings –

• Difficulty of ingredients to find – 3/5 stars – Should be a normal trip to the store
• Perceived difficulty going into recipe – 4/5 stars – not sure about the 100% hand rolled pasta
• Difficulty after recipe – 3.5/5 stars – it’s not that it’s hard to roll, you get in a groove really quick, it just takes a lot of time
• Time taken – 5/5 stars – more than 4 hours
• Taste – 5/5 stars – yeah, it’s that good
• Make again – 5/5 stars – no doubt, might make for my birthday dinners