Butternut handkerchief pasta

Rolling pasta by hand is definitely not something you’re going to do every day, but when the opportunity comes, you’ll want to try this one. Roast the butternut instead of boiling to get that moisture out and to get a deeper flavour.

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Place the diced butternut and butternut quarters on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil and season. Roast for 12–15 minutes or until caramelised and cooked through.

2. To make the pasta, place the flour, egg yolks and cooked diced butternut in the bowl of a stand mixer and knead on the slowest speed using a dough hook for 3 minutes, or until the dough comes together.

3. Increase the speed and knead the dough until a ball forms, another 3–5 minutes. Remove the dough from the bowl and turn out onto a floured surface.

4. Using a rolling pin, roll out the dough to a thickness of 1 cm, then feed it through a pasta machine on the widest setting. Pass the pasta through the machine again on a smaller setting, repeating the process until you have a long, thin sheet of pasta that’s still firm enough to handle.

5. Bring a saucepan of salted water to the boil. Cut the pasta into “handkerchiefs” and cook two sheets at a time for 4 minutes, stirring to make sure they don’t stick together. Place in an ice bath to halt the cooking process. Reserve half a cup of the pasta water.

6. Heat the cream in a pan, then add the pasta water, thyme and seasoning. Stir in the cheese and add the pasta, coating it thoroughly with the sauce.

7. In a separate pan, melt the butter and add the hazelnuts. Fry them gently in the butter until golden brown. Serve the pasta warm, drizzled with the hazelnut butter over and a wedge of roasted butternut.

Find more pasta recipes here. 

Photograph: Jan Ras