Mushrooms Braised Beef Parppadelle

Pasta, Pasta, Pasta!!! What can I say??? I just love pasta! I love them so bad I could eat some every single day! Imagine when you are making your own pasta. The feeling we had Jean-Felix and I the first time we made a batch of fresh pasta and had our first bite was amazing. A mix of pride, power and feeling of ecstasy! HAHAHA It’s like… “OH MY GOD! Did we really make this?” What a cool feeling! Then if you mix your fresh pasta with some delicious mushroom braised beef, I can guarantee you’ll go straight to even! Hallelujah!

For 4

INGREDIENTS:

For the Mushroom braised beef

1 boneless beef chuck roast (1 kg)
2 tbsp butter
1 garlic head broken into cloves and split in halves
1 chopped onion
1 pack of 227 gr of white button mushrooms cut in halves or quarters for the big one
1 cup red wine
2 cups veal stock
1 ½ tbsp Dijon mustard
2 fresh bay leaves
2 fresh sprigs of thyme (2 big or 3 small)
1/2 cup whole milk
Italian fresh parsley chopped
Grated Parmesan for topping
Fine sea salt and ground black pepper

For the fresh Parppadelle

2 ½ unbleached flour sifted (All-Purpose)
4 large eggs at room temperature
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 tsp fine sea salt

PREPARATION:

For the Mushroom braised beef

Brush the beef chuck roast with the Dijon mustard and season with fine sea salt and black ground pepper.
Preheat your oven at 325 F
In a large Dutch oven pot eat the butter at medium high and brown the meat for about 2–3 minutes on each side. Remove the beef chuck roast and set aside on a plate.
In the same Dutch oven add the white button mushrooms and cook them about 2–3 minutes, until they get brown, add the onions and the garlic and cook for 1–2 more minutes. Add the red wine, veal stock, bay leaves and the sprigs of thyme. Season with the fine sea salt and the black ground pepper. Put back the beef chuck roast in the broth and cover.
Transfer in the oven and let braised for 2.5-3 hours until the meat is tender.
Carefully remove the beef chuck roast from the pot and place it on a plate. Coarsely chop the braised meat and remove the fat. Let the meat aside. Remove all the mushrooms and put them with the beef. Reserve.
With a fine strainer or cotton cheese cloth, strain the juice in a medium sauce pan. Press well to make sure you extract every drop and all the flavour contained in the ingredients. Bring to boil on medium high eat. Reduce for 10 minutes until the broth looks a bit thicker. Add the whole milk, the meat and the mushrooms. Adjust the seasoning! Gently stir and Voilà!!! Keep warm.

For the Fresh Parppadelle

Arrange flour in a mound on a work surface. Then with your fingers make a hole in the centre. Add your eggs, the olive oil and the salt in the hole. With a fork, mix the eggs together and gently start to push the flour in the mixture. Keep adding flour and then start working with your fingertips and then with your hands.
If you’re having a hard time to incorporate all the flour, you can wet your hand with cold water and continue kneading until everything looks completely uniform.
Knead the dough for 10 minutes until it becomes smooth and elastic.
Cover and let the dough rise for 30 minutes.
Use a pasta rolling machine and roll the pasta until you reach the thinnest grade. (If you don’t have a machine, you can do it with a rolling pin on a lightly floured work surface. You roll until the dough is very thin. About 1 millimetre).
I cut my Parppadelles 1 x 8 inches size. I love this size! I recommend you use a sharp chef’s knife to cut your pasta and put some fine semolina on the cut pasta. Like this, they won’t stick together.

For the Final

In a large pot, bring water to boil with a little amount of olive oil and cook the fresh Parppadelle. They must be al dente. The fresh pasta cooks very fast. Only one minute or two … it depends on the size and the thickness. As I always say…. Nothing … and I mean NOTHING is worst then over-cooked pasta. When it’s done, drain the pasta and return them into the pot.
I always season with a bit of salt and I put a good amount of olive oil in the pasta. You can see the breakdown about that trick in the Carbonara recipe.
Put the braised beef and mushrooms sauce in the pasta. Stir gently and serve on beautiful plates!
Sprinkle with fresh Italian parsley and grated Parmesan.

I swear to God, at your first bite you will forget all the pain you might have felt kneading the dough. HAHAHAHA Because let’s face it, it can be a pain in the a**! But believe me, the juice is worth the squeeze … a thousand times.

Love you!!!

Sefra