This homemade Pici Pasta with guinea fowl ragout and Pecorino cheese is a typical Tuscan dish made with all local ingredients carefully selected by Il Palagio's Executive Chef Vito Mollica. Ragout has always been a traditional dish associated with big family meals, which was the inspiration for Chef Vito who still remembers waking up on Sunday mornings to the unforgettable smell of his grandmother's and mother's ragout on the stove. Depending on the seasonality of ingredients, pici pasta comes with different dressings, even with vegetarian options or with fresh truffle.
Pici Pasta with Guinea Fowl Ragout - from Four Seasons Hotel Firenze
Ingredients (for 4 people):
For Pici pasta
750g flour 00
250g semolina flour
20ml extra virgin olive oil
20ml salt
450ml water
1 whole egg
For Guinea fowl ragout
1 boneless and minced guinea fowl (its bones apart)
400g onion
400g carrot
320g celery
1 glass of White Porto wine
400g tomato sauce
50g grated Pecorino cheese
Method
Step 1 - Make the pasta
Put all the pasta ingredients in a kitchen aid, and mix for 10 minutes and let the dough rest for about half an hour.
Roll the dough into ’spaghettoni’ of about 1/2 cm diameter and 30 cm length.
Step 2 - Make the demi glace
In a pot, toast the bones of the guinea fowl with a little extra virgin olive oil.
Roughly chop 200 grams of carrot, 200 grams of onion and 160 grams of celery. Add cold water and simmer for about 3 hours, skimming often.
Step 4 - Cook the ragout
In a pan, add a little oil and sweat the remaining celery, carrot and onion until golden.
Add the minced meat of the guinea fowl and deglaze with the White Port wine.
Add the tomato sauce and cook for about 3 hours wetting the ragout with the demi glace.
Step 5 - Cook the pasta
Cook the pici in salted hot water for about 5-6 minutes.
Step 6 - Plate up the pasta
Serve in a plate with the prepared ragout, and finish with a sprinkling of grated Pecorino cheese.