Recipes › Entrees

Bottega’s chefs, Frank Stitt and John Rolen make pasta a delicacy.

By Jan Walsh

Photography by Beau Gustafson

Silk Handkerchiefs, a crab and veggie stuffed pasta, is one of my favorite dishes at Bottega Cafe. And today I am in the kitchen at Bottega Restaurant with executive chef, Frank Stitt and team—watching their performance of making, rolling, cutting, cooking, folding, and stuffing these pasta delicacies. For this farm to table pasta dish, Stitt sources the eggs from his and wife, Pardis’ farm, Paradise Farm. The cherry tomatoes came from Harvest Farm, and the crabmeat is from Greg Abrams Seafood.

 

Sauté Ingredients:
1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
1 Small shallot minced
1 Cup lady peas or field peas drained
8 Ounces jumbo lump crabmeat (cleaned of any shell fragments)
12 Small cherry tomatoes cut in half
1 Cup buerre monte
1 Tablespoon fresh dill, chopped
Juice of one lemon
Dough Procedure: In the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the dough hook attachment, add the “00” flour. Begin mixing on low speed. Slowly add the egg yolks until combined. Continue to mix for seven minutes. Once the dough is formed, remove from mixer. Divide into three equal pieces. Wrap each piece tightly with plastic wrap. Allow to rest for at least 30 minutes. Resting the dough will allow it to soften and be easier for rolling through the pasta machine.

Next, using a rolling pin, start with one of the pieces of dough, and roll it out into an even rectangle one half of an inch thick. If using a hand cranked pasta machine, attach it to the counter, and adjust the rollers to the widest setting. If using the attachment for a stand mixer, set the machine rollers to the widest setting. Guide the dough through the machine. Repeat, switching the rollers to the next narrower setting each time. The dough will become longer and thinner with each pass through the machine. Continue until you have reached the thinnest setting for the rollers. You need to be able to see your hand through the pasta dough, and the pasta sheet should be thin and delicate like a silk handkerchief. Cut the sheet of pasta into squares, five inches by five inches. Lay flat on a baking sheet or dinner plate. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and keep boiling while preparing the sauté.

Sauté Procedure:
In a large sauté pan, over medium heat, melt one tablespoon of unsalted butter. Add minced shallot and soften, cooking for approximately one minute. Add the field peas and warm through. Add the buerre monte, and reduce the heat to low. Add crabmeat and cherry tomatoes, cooking until warm. Remove from the heat. Finish with the lemon juice and fresh dill. Place the four sheets of pasta into the boiling water, one at a time. Cook for two minutes. Carefully remove the pasta sheets from the water, drain, and gently lay the pasta on four separate serving plates. Spoon the sauté of the crab and peas into the center of each pasta square (reserving four to five tablespoons of the sauté to garnish). Next, fold the edges of the silk handkerchiefs over the crab, peas, and tomatoes to envelope the filling. Garnish with the remaining sauce, spooned over the top of each dish. Garnish with a sprig of fresh dill or finely sliced chives.

Serves One.