The first recipe in a potential series called Our Pan In Volterra. This was referred to in my blog here. I was hoping to get permisssion to publish the recipe, and I got it – so thanks to Claudia Del Duca (who translated it for me), and of course the amazing head chef at Del Duca restaurant, Volterra: Alessandro Calabrese, whose recipe it is.

So here we go! The recipe serves 4-5 people, and is meant for someone with at least moderate experience in cooking. Jerusalem artichoke is referred to as ‘Topinambur’ through out the recipe.

The Pasta dough
200g whole wheat flour
100g “00” flour
100g wheat durum flour
100g manitoba flour (high gluten concentration)
5g salt
10g extra virgin olive oil
5 eggs

Mix all the ingredients, knead the dough until you get it smooth and even. Let it rest one hour in the refrigerator. Then, with a pasta machine, make the sheets thin and of a weight of 80g each.

Topinambur cream
500g topinambur
50g potatoes
Salt and extra virgin olive oil in enough quantity (as you may measure by eye)

Peel the topinambur, the potatoes and slice them thinly. 

Put them into a vacuuming bag and steam them at 100°C for 50 minutes. Afterwards in a mixer blend all of it with a bit of extra virgin olive oil and a pinch of salt until you get a smooth and bright cream.

The topinambur skins are boiled for 1 hour: after that, strain and spread them on an oven pan. Dry them for 3 hours in the oven at 80°C. Afterwards deep fry them in  hot seed oil for 15 seconds. Add salt and pepper.

Turnip pesto
200g cleaned turnips
20g pecorino cheese
20g almonds
75g extra virgin olive oil
75g sunflower oil
Salt
Extravirgin olive oil and garlic (to sauté the turnips)

Boil the turnips in salty water for 3-5minutes. Strain them and sauté in extravirgin olive oil with garlic (brown it before). Let them become cold and mix all the above ingredients (without the last line) in a thermomixer for 20 seconds

Blue cheese fondue
500g milk
12g “00” flour
12g butter
150g blue cheese

Melt the butter and add the flour. Pour the warm milk into the flour and butter mix. Cook it. Then put the sauce in the thermomix at 65°C. Add the blue cheese and mix until it melts.

How to assemble the dish
Boil the pasta in salty water, strain it and put it in a pan with the warm topinambur cream. Blend it well making sure you don’t break the sheet of pasta. 

On the plate spread a bit of turnip pesto, add the sheet of pasta with the topinambur cream. Add some more turnip pesto, spread some blue cheese cream and decorate with topinambur chips.

Let me know if you made it and what you thought of it!

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