Toasted flour fettuccine carbonara and The Apple iPad

Restaurant: Grossi Florentino (Victoria)

Recipe from Gourmet Traveller website (link)

2010 Rating: Number 31, 2 Stars

Lately I've been getting cravings for good old pasta, so I thought I would give this Guy Grossi recipe a try, results will be posted very shortly.

On a complete side track I thought I would take this opportunity to let you in on a little secret. My dear Daz is a little bit nuts. Ok, maybe not a little bit nuts, but more of a sad tragic tech gadget geek. On Friday the new apple iPad was released in Australia, and Daz was one of the tragics that lined up overnight at Chadstone Shopping center to get an opportunity to buy the iPhone on steroids. To be honest, I'm extremely proud of him. He wanted to line up just to experience the whole situation, from the exhaustive and countless hours of waiting, to the screaming and hype coming from the apple staff. From what he told me, it sounded like he had an awesome night, filled with plenty of laughter. I wanted to share one of his many stories.

At about 2 in the morning 3 people started walking towards the group. One of the guys in the line asked if they were there for the launch of the new iPad. They said they weren't, but they lived nearby and were often at Chadstone. They told the group that they were "freegans" and only ate stuff they could source for free. So they were there to dumpster dive in the area behind Aldi. They walked off and returned about 30 minutes later carrying a massive box filled with a huge leg of lamb, a brand new frying pan, some muffins and loads of veggies. The freegans were really excited about the muffins and were trying to convince the boys to go and grab some for themselves. Luckily, despite being tired and probably hungry they thought eating muffins that have come from the bin is probably not a good idea. Later in the night, the group tried to bribe one of the security guards to let the into the center, first they tried money......that didnt work, so then they offered chocolate chip muffins......at least a dozen. The security guard declined their offer.

Later in the day we found out that Myer had the iPad on sell as well. Someone told me they were telling people in the apple line that Myer had stock, no line and were offering free muffins to all their patrons. I just wonder where their stock of muffins came from, I hope they weren't chocolate chip.

For anyone who is interested, here's a video of the boys in the early hours of the morning as seen on channel seven. Daz is the blonde in the red top, he's only in it for a split second......yay it's his 15 nanoseconds of fame.

Now, back to the food!!

Toasted flour fettuccine “carbonara”

Serves 4

Cooking Time Prep time 35 mins, cook 15 mins (plus resting and cooling)

INGREDIENTS

4 eggs

100 gm butter, coarsely chopped

8 slices prosciutto (about 150 gm), sliced lengthways into ribbons

100 gm pecorino, finely grated, plus extra to serve

2 tbsp (firmly packed) flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped

To serve: thinly shaved black truffle (optional)

Toasted flour fettuccine

330 gm durum semolina flour, plus extra for dusting

165 gm unbleached plain flour

3 eggs, lightly beaten

METHOD

1. For toasted flour fettuccine, heat a large frying pan over medium heat, scatter half the durum semolina flour evenly over the base and stir frequently until golden (3-5 minutes), set aside to cool. Combine toasted flour, remaining durum semolina flour, plain flour, eggs and 150ml water in an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook and mix until smooth and silky (15-20 minutes). Wrap dough in plastic wrap, refrigerate for 1 hour. Divide dough into 4 pieces and, working with one piece at a time, feed through a pasta machine, starting with rollers at widest setting. Fold in half lengthways, feed through again, then repeat, reducing settings notch by notch until dough is translucent and 2mm thick. Cut using the fettuccine attachment, dust with semolina, set aside and repeat with remaining dough.

2. Bring a deep-sided frying pan of water to a simmer over low-medium heat. Crack each egg into a saucer, swirl water gently, add eggs one at a time and poach until cooked to your liking (3 minutes for soft poached), drain, set aside and keep warm.

3. Meanwhile, bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil. Melt butter in a large frying pan over medium heat, add prosciutto and cook until opaque (1-2 minutes). Meanwhile, cook pasta until al dente (1-2 minutes). Drain pasta, add to prosciutto with pecorino, parsley and 1 tbsp pasta water, stir gently to combine and season to taste. Divide pasta among four bowls, top each with a poached egg, scatter over extra pecorino and truffle, if using, and serve immediately.