Tagliatelle with ragú and brochette of thrush uliassi
info@uliassi.it
It’s ironic that the restaurant of Mauro Uliassi, which is dedicated in flesh and soul to aquatic cuisine, and that only in exceptional cases does it offer any proposals of meat whatsoever, should impress us so with such an uncustomary dish for this attractive establishment situated on the Adriatic.
It’s a formula where pasta – of which the chef is a master, using, for example, the Farro de Latini line, “Gerardo Di Nola” linguine, always the finest brands cooked to perfection – converges with murex – a fascinating and profound marine delight – and thrush, a prohibited delicacy that tantalizes with its exquisite, wild nature. Nothing could be better.
The Recipe
Ingredients
- 320 g of tagliatelle*
- 3 dl of murex sauce*
Method
Cook the tagliatelle in an abundant amount of water with salt for one and a half minutes so that they are still fairly crunchy, then give them a creamy consistency mixing them well with the murex sauce.
Portion out the tagliatelle onto 4 soup plates.
The thrush
Ingredients
- 8 thrushes
- 12 finely cut slices of streaky bacon
- 1 sprig of thyme
- 1 sprig of chervil
- 1 sprig of marjoram
- 4 cloves of garlic
- olive oil
- 50g butter in very cold cubes
- 1dl of good, dry cava
- 12 small, round slices of homemade bread
- ½dl clam juice
- ½dl Norway lobster stock
- Roasted olives*
Method
Pluck, singe, and clean the thrush.
Clean well and debone, then rub them with a clove of garlic, salt and pepper and wrap one by one with the bacon.
Keep the carcass aside.
In a stewing pot with sufficient capacity, add in all the ingredients, except the butter, along with the carcasses.
Brown quickly, remove the thrush (the meat should stay pink on the inside), add some cava, leave to evaporate and add the rest, this time with a bit of clam juice and Norway lobster stock.
Reduce to half, strain and whisk with the cold butter.
Pass the thrushes quickly in the salamander to brown the bacon wrapping.
Push a small wooden skewer through every one of the thrushes and place them on a slice of toasted bread rubbed with garlic.
Arrange 2 thrushes with the toasted bread on a small plate and drip with thrush sauce, topping them with the roasted olives.
Serve with the tagliatelle.
The Tagliatelle*
Ingredients
- 375 g of flour 00
- 200 g of whole eggs
- 200 g of egg yolks
- 125 g of hard grain semolina
Method
Blend all the ingredients and divide the dough into 2 blocks, wrap them with paper film and leave them for 1 hour.
With the help of a rolling pin, flatten the dough into a fine sheet, but not too much.
Dust lightly with flour, extending it with your hand, and fold it over as is customary.
Cut into tagliatelle.
Murex sauce*
Ingredients
- 1 kg murex
- 2 dl white wine
- 1 l water
- Extra virgin olive oil
- 5 cloves of garlic
- 4 sage leaves
- 2 sprigs of wild chervil
- 1 sprig of thyme
- 1 sprig of marjoram
- 100 g of lightly smoked pancetta, in two pieces
Method
Clean the murex well and cook them in salted water for 5 minutes.
Drain and put aside.
Sautee in olive oil half of the pancetta, 3 cloves of garlic, 2 sage leaves, 1 sprig of chervil, half a sprig of thyme, half a sprig of marjoram, and the murex.
Pour in 1 dl white wine, leave to reduce and cover with cold water.
Cook for around 25 minutes.
Drain the murex, extract them from the shells, remove the intestine, drain the juice and degrease.
Use another saucepan to prepare the base with the remaining herbs and pancetta. Add the murex, halved, and brown well. Add the rest of the wine, reduce and mix with the previously drained juices.
Cook for another 20 minutes.
Remove all the murex, drain again, degrease and return the mollusks once again.
The olives*
Ingredients
- 100 g of fresh raggia olives
- 1 orange peel
- 1 clove of garlic
- salt flower
- olive oil
Method
In a small sauce pan, brown the olives together with the salt flower , the orange peel and the garlic.
Drain over absorbent paper.