Sopressine Pasta with Smoked Tomato Sauce

“This dish was created during the Great Tomato Glut of 2017,” shares Andrea Carlson, author of 2020 Silver winning cookbook, Burdock & Co. “Due to a cool early growing season and a sudden hot spell, the tomatoes we had all been waiting for all summer came ripe all at once. Farmers were desperately trying to sell to the over-load. And so Kevin spent days smoking hundreds of pounds of tomatoes in the backyard! We smoked them whole directly on the grill and popped them in the freezer, which helps the skin slide right off when you’re ready to cook.

I’m always looking for new shapes of short pasta that can be made by hand. Sopressine’s many folds and gathers are perfect for a simple sauce like this one. It’s good to have helpers with nimble fingers for this pasta project.”

Follow Andrea on IG // FB // Twitter

Print Pin

Sopressine Pasta with Smoked Tomato Sauce

Course Main Course

Servings 6 servings

Author Andrea Carlson, author of 2020 Silver winning cookbook, Burdock & Co.

Equipment

• Charcoal grill or smoker, Applewood chips or dry grapevine cuttings, Pasta maker

Ingredients

Pasta Dough:

• 300 g (2 ⅓ cups) all- purpose flour
• 150 g (1 cup) semolina flour
• 3 large eggs
• 3 egg yolks
• 6 g (2 tsp) kosher salt

Smoked Tomato Sauce:

• 2¼ lb (1 kg) ripe Cascade, San Marzano, or other heirloom sauce tomatoes
• ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 small onion diced
• 6 cloves garlic thinly sliced
• 1 tsp Charred Chili Oil
• Kosher salt
• Fresh-ground black pepper

Instructions

Pasta Directions:

• In a medium-size bowl, mix all the ingredients until combined. Turn out onto a clean work surface, and knead the dough until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Wrap in plastic wrap. Rest for at least 2 hours.
• Cut into two pieces and use a rolling pin to flatten each to ½ inch thick. Pass the pieces of dough through the pasta maker on the largest setting (1), reducing the thickness with each pass until the next-to-last setting. Cut each length in half and cover with a towel.
• Take one length and cut into 2-inch squares. Take each square and bring the bottom left corner to the top right corner and pinch the two together, creating a hollow triangular shape. Then take the remaining two corners and fold them around the back, pinching those two corners together there. It will look almost like a hollow tortellini. Set aside on a semolina-dusted tray and let dry for 2 hours.

Sauce Directions:

• Prepare a charcoal grill or smoker for smoking with the apple chips or grapevine cuttings.
• In a large pot, blanch the tomatoes in water. Peel and seed. Place in a medium-size heatproof bowl.
• Smoke the tomatoes in the smoker for 5 to 10 minutes. Or, if using a grill, place the bowl of tomatoes on the grill away from the coals, cover, and smoke vigorously for 5 to 10 minutes. You don’t want the tomatoes to cook, only to smoke.
• When smoky, chop the tomatoes and set aside.
• In a large saucepan, gently heat the olive oil and sweat the onions and garlic until soft. Add the smoked tomatoes and Charred Chili Oil. Simmer for 20 minutes. Season with salt and a few grinds of black pepper.

To Serve:

• ¾ cup grated aged sheep cheese (we like Salt Spring Island Cheese Company Montaña)
• Extra virgin olive oil, for garnish (optional)
• In a large pot of salted water, boil the pasta until al dente, about 3 minutes.
• Warm the sauce.
• Toss the sopressine with just enough warm sauce to coat. Divide among six plates or on one large platter.
• Shave cheese over top and drizzle with a little extra olive oil if you like.

Sharing is caring!