Date Night Mezzaluna Pasta With A Sage and Tarragon Brown Butter Sauce

Shaun and I try to have a date night together at least once every week or two.  Date night means actively doing something together... no TV, no surfing the interwebs on our own laptops, no playing computer games on our own.  Past date nights have included things like dinner out and a movie, learning a new board game together or going bowling, but never have we attempted to cook together in the kitchen.

Sure, he'll occasionally make a meal for us, but he'll banish me from the kitchen while he does it.  When I'm cooking, he's always willing to help, but he's more of a sous chef than a co-chef in those instances.  He'll dice an onion, measure out liquids or set the table, but we have never REALLY cooked together.  This date night was about to change all that, though.  On the docket for this week was a joint effort in the kitchen!

Shaun has always wanted to try making his own pasta, and after a particularly rough week at work for me, he rolled up his sleeves one night when I was going to be late getting home and took care of dinner as a nice gesture.  He made his own pasta dough from scratch.  It turned out so good we decided that we would break our cycle of not cooking together and truly make a meal together.  We settled on using his dough recipe to make some delicious filled pasta while I would come up with the perfect complimenting sauce.  We ended up with some very unique and tasty flavor combinations in our Spinach and Mushroom Stuffed Mezzaluna Pasta with A Sage and Tarragon Brown Butter Sauce.

Pasta Dough

• 2 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons water, divided, plus more as needed
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 egg white
• 2 additional tablespoons of water

 

Spinach and Mushroom Pasta Filling

• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 medium sized Spanish onion, finely chopped
• 8 ounces white mushrooms, chopped
• 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
• 1/3 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1/2 cup frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
• Salt and ground black pepper, to taste

 

Brown Butter Sauce

• 1 stick of butter at room temperature, cut into tablespoon pieces
• 1 large clove of garlic, crushed and finely chopped
• 1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 tablespoon fresh sage leaves, roughly chopped, or 1 teaspoon dried ground sage
• 1 tablespoon fresh tarragon leaves, roughly chopped, or 1 teaspoon dried tarragon
• Pinch of salt
• Pinch of ground black pepper 

 

Start by making your dough.  In a large bowl, combine the salt and flour in a large bowl until well combined.  Pour out onto a flat clean surface that you don't mind getting a little flour on.  Make a well in the center of the flour.

In a separate small bowl, lightly beat the eggs and olive oil and a tablespoon of water.  Pour the egg mixture into the well of the flour and begin kneading to combine, forming a dough.

As you knead, add the next tablespoon of water.  If more is required to get all of the flour incorporated, add it in 1/2 tablespoon increments beyond that.  Keep kneading the dough until it becomes one solid piece, about 10 minutes of consistent kneading.  Then, form the dough into one ball and wrap tightly with plastic wrap while you prepare your filling, or up to 2 hours.

For the filling, heat the olive oil in a mediums skillet over medium heat.  Add the garlic and onion and cook until onions start to soften, about 3-4 minutes.  Then add the mushrooms and saute until all liquids have cooked off, about 7 minutes.  Remove from heat and cool completely in.

While the mushrooms, onion and garlic are cooling, mix the ricotta, Parmesan, mozzarella and spinach in a medium sized bowl.  Once cooled, add in the mushroom mixture.  You want to be sure this is cooled completely or you will melt your the cheeses for your filling.  Season the filling with salt and pepper to taste and set aside in the refrigerator until needed.

Once the dough has had a chance to rest and the filling is made, it is time to begin making your mezzaluna pasta.  To start, beat the white of one egg with 2 tablespoons of water to make an egg wash.  Set aside.

Roll out the dough to about 1/8 to 1/16 of an inch thickness on a lightly floured clean surface.  It often works best to lightly flour the rolling pin as well.  As you roll out the dough, it is important to roll evenly, so start from the middle and roll to an edge, making sure to consistently turn and flip the dough.  Once it has reached the desired thickness, use a round ravioli stamp if you have one to cut out evenly sized round shapes, getting as close as possible to the last shape cut.  Make sure to gather all of your scraps, as you will be able to re-roll these out to get the most mezzaluna possible out of your dough.  If you don't have a round ravioli stamp, don't worry!  You can use the top of any standard sized drinking glass or coffee mug.  Simply place the stamp or glass and press down firmly and twist as you press to be sure to cut the shape from the sheet of dough.

Once you have all of your shapes cut out, go back and roll each individual shape out as thin as you can get it without causing any tearing or holes to form, slightly thicker than paper.  Then re-stamp or re-press each newly rolled shape back into the original size you wanted.  At this point, you can re-roll the scraps again to get one or two more circles out, if your patience is still with you.  If not, you can discard these scraps and no one will know...

Place about a dollop of filling in the center of each circle, no more than 1/2-to-2/3 of a tablespoon.  Using a fingertip, lightly spread some of the egg wash around the edges of the circle, then fold the dough over the filling to meet the opposite edge evenly, making a half circle.  Gently press the edges to seal the filling in, and then crimp the very edges using a fork, pressing lightly.  Continue for all pieces of the dough.

**The recipe may be completed in advance to this point.**

For Later Serving: If you're not quite ready to finish this dish off and want to enjoy it at a later time, the pasta can be refrigerated for up to a week at this point.  When you're ready to cook it, just add a minute or two to the cooking time, as the dough and filling will be much colder, and resume with the instructions below.

For immediate serving: Bring a pot of lightly salted water to a boil.  As the water comes to a boil, begin the brown butter sauce.

In a large stainless steel skillet, melt 1 tablespoon of butter over medium heat.  Add the garlic and cook for about 1 minute.  Add 3 more tablespoons of butter and melt until lightly bubbling, about 2 minutes, stirring frequently.

At this point, you should gently place your pasta in the boiling water and boil until the pasta is floating and has puffed up slightly, about 5-6 minutes.  When done, drain and move to a serving bowl.

Going back to the sauce, add in the remaining butter and cherry tomatoes.  Cook until the butter has come to a bubble, about 5-6 minutes.  Add in the sage and tarragon at this point and continue cooking until the bubbling has subsided and the butter has turned a light golden brown color and has a rich, nutty aroma, about 1-2 minutes.  Add salt and pepper to taste and pour over your mezzaluna.

A Note on Browning Butter

Butter should always be browned in a stainless steel skillet, if possible.  A large part of what browns butter nicely is when it begins to just cook and adhere to the bottom of the pan, which is why it is important to frequently stir.  Otherwise, you'll end up with burnt butter, not brown butter.  When you use a non-stick skillet, the butter doesn't have the chance to stick to the bottom of the pan and it never quite browns; it just goes from melted to overcooked and burnt tasting.  Most non-stick skillets are also black, so you won't really have a chance to see the color changing on the butter.

 

Plating this one can be done in several ways; it really depends on your mood and the company you're preparing the meal for.  I've showcased both in this post.  The first is to serve it family style.  Place all the mezzaluna in a large pasta bowl, pour the sauce over them and have people serve themselves table side.  Alternatively, you can place 4 or 5 mezzaluna on a longer rectangular plate, flat side down, and drizzle the sauce over the pasta.  Either way, they'll taste just as good!

At this point, some of you may be wondering what the difference between a ravioli and a mezzaluna pasta shape is.  Well, let me tell you, and then use this tidbit as a great conversation started about the dinner to fascinate your guests.  Ravioli are generally round or square-cut filled pasta, whereas mezzaluna pasta are made in a half moon shape, as the name implies: "mezzaluna" meaning "half moon" in Italian. 

A note for you before you get started on this meal, though: be prepared to invest an entire evening to this one... making your own pasta, especially a filled pasta is not a quick task.  It is a labor of love.  Share this labor of love with someone you love, though, and the time will fly right by!  When the two of you sit down to eat, you'll both have beaming smiles when you look at the amazing meal you prepared together.  I know Shaun and I looked up at each other, smiled, gave each other a congratulatory high five across the table, yawned out of exhaustion and said, "Goodnight!"

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