KANSAS CITY, MO — Michael Smith is not only Kansas City’s first James Beard Award-Winning Chef, he is now our first knighted chef. The chef from Farina joins us in the kitchen to explain his knighting experience in Italy, and with a delicious recipe.
Chef Michael Smith’s Raviolini del Plin
Serves 6
Ingredients
1 teaspoon salt, plus more for pasta water
8-10 tablespoons butter
10 sage leaves
1 cup grated Grana Padano or Parmesan
1 fresh white truffle (optional!)
Pasta Dough
3 cups all-purpose flour
3 whole large eggs, plus 3 egg yolks
Raviolini Filling:
1 tablespoon butter
1 garlic clove, thinly-sliced
1 sprig fresh rosemary, leaves only
4 sprigs Italian parsley
1 pound ground veal shoulder
1 pound ground pork
1 carrot – finely grated
1 yellow onion – finely grated
1 rib of celery – finely grated
2 cups shredded napa cabbage
4 cups spinach
¾ cup grated parmesan cheese
3 large eggs
Freshly-grated nutmeg, to taste
Salt and freshly-ground black pepper
To make the dough:
Sift and then mound 3 cups of the flour in the center of the table. Make a well in the middle of the flour and add the eggs. Using a fork, beat together the eggs and begin to incorporate the flour, starting with the inner rim of the well. As you expand the well, keep pushing the flour up from the base of the mound to retain the well shape. The dough will come together when half of the flour is incorporated.
Start kneading the dough with both hands, using the palms of your hands. Knead for about 15 minutes, adding any of the remaining flour if necessary to create a cohesive mass. Once you have a cohesive mass, remove the dough from the board and scrape up and throw away any scraggly pieces. Lightly flour the table and continue kneading for another 10 minutes. The dough should be elastic and a little sticky. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let it rest for 30 minutes.
To make the filling:
Bring 3 quarts of salted water to a boil. Add the cabbage to the boiling water for 10 minutes then add the spinach for 1 minute. Drain both together and let cool. Squeeze as much liquid out of the cabbage and spinach as possible using your hands and working in small batches. When dry; chop the mixture up finely with a chef’s knife. Set aside.
Place a 12-inch saucepan over high heat and add 1 tablespoon of butter until it is hot but not smoking. Working in small batches; add the veal and pork meat and cook until browned; each time removing the cooked meat and adding a new batch of raw ground meat. Repeat until all the meat is cooked. After the last batch of meat is removed; add the garlic, onions, celery and carrot and cook until the vegetables are light golden brown, about 5 minutes.
Then add all the meat back to the pan and season the mixture with salt and pepper, to taste. Add cooked cabbage mixture to the meat and continue to cook and stir until everything is well incorporated. Pour the mixture out in to a large mixing bowl. Use a wooden spoon to stir in the parmesan cheese, eggs, and a pinch of nutmeg. Set aside.