Pasta Casareccia ▪ Montréal

5849 Rue Sherbrooke
Montréal, Québec
Notre-Dame-de-Grâce
514.483.1588
website

I got back from my BC trip and headed straight to my new condo. I hope to have some before and after posts soon-ish! During the following week, with help from my family, the condo was cleaned and painted. After one of these cleaning sessions, Elle and I went searching for food in my new neighbourhood of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce (NDG) - also my old neighbourhood as this is where I grew up. We walked down Sherbrooke and went to one of Elle's favourite restaurants for pasta.

Pasta Casareccia has a great reputation for pasta because it makes its own pasta in-house. Not only is it a restaurant, but also offers Italian goods, including fresh homemade pasta to bring home. We sat down at one of the outside tables and admired the herb planters on the tables.

Pasta Casareccia.

Elle and I both started with a Cesar salad ($6) each. The dressing tasted homemade but the anchovies flavour was a tad strong for my taste.

Cesar salad.

The menu offered a few pasta and sauce choices that patrons can combine to their liking. In an attempt to have a light dinner, we decided to share the medaglioni di ricotta ($16) because Elle was intrigued by this unfamiliar pasta. The dish consisted of 4 large medallions that we shared.

Medaglioni di ricotta.

When we sliced into the medallions, we were amazed by the thin layers of pasta alternating with ricotta and spinach filling. We tried to figure out if the pasta was cooked before putting the medallions together, or if the pasta was rolled uncooked and baked. We couldn't figure it out. We also agreed that it would take a lot of skill to spread a very thin layer of filling and roll it into such a nice medallion. We might have to try our hand at medaglioni's! The medallions were topped with tomato sauce.

Delicate layers of pasta.

I am very excited to further explore my new neighbourhood, and Pasta Casareccia was a great start! I can't wait to go back and try other homemade pasta. It's also good to know that I have access to great pasta nearby. This will be very convenient if I ever have to throw an impromptu dinner party.

 

Taralli

Taralli never appealed to me until someone brought some to work. The Italian light and crispy breadsticks were studded with fennel seeds and had a great salty bite. I fell. Hard.

I loved the fennel seeds in the taralli I tried and I thought adding these with another classic, peperoncini, would make a great combination for my first batch of taralli. I also wanted to try a less common flavour, rosemary for the second batch.  
 
Taralli
Makes about 24 breadstick-shaped taralli's.
Adapted from Babbo Ristorante and David Rocco.

I immediately wanted to try the recipe from Canadian-Italian TV host David Rocco. But I then found a recipe  from Babbo Ristorante's website, my Italian Iron Chef hero's restaurant. This recipe has more wine, white wine in this case, but I did not go to the trouble of getting 00 flour, so I adapted from both recipes since David Rocco's recipe used all-purpose flour.

▪ 250 g (½ lb) all-purpose flour
▪ 2 tsp salt
▪ ½ tsp sugar
▪ 1-½ Tbsp fennel seeds / 2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes OR 2 Tbsp fresh rosemary (roughly chopped)
▪ ¼ to ½ cup (250 ml) white wine, or as much as you need
▪ ½ cup (250 ml) extra virgin olive oil

Place the flour, salt, sugar, and flavourings of your choice in the bowl of an electric mixer.
Add the wine and oil and mix on medium speed to form a wet dough.
Add more wine and/or water as required.
Transfer the dough to a plastic container, well dusted with flour.
Sprinkle the top of the dough with more flour, cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.

Dry ingredients for the different flavoured taralli.

Turn the dough out onto a floured board and knead lightly.
Divide the dough into two pieces.
Roll portions of the dough into long ropes, about ¾ inch in diameter.
Cut the rope into about 4" pieces. (Taralli are traditionally shaped into rings, but I chose to shape them like breadsticks. It's also less effort this way!)
Boil approximately 4-5 litress of water in a large, shallow pot.
Season the water with salt.
Drop the dough sections, about 6 at a time; the water should remain at a simmer.
The taralli will float to the top when they are done.
Gently scoop them out of the water with a slotted spoon or a Chinese skimmer, allowing them to drain for a moment in the spoon, before placing them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
The dough is still pliable so straighten them to make nice breadsticks-like taralli.
While you are boiling the taralli, preheat the oven to 375 F.
Bake the taralli for 40-50 minutes, flipping them over half way through.
Remove them from the oven when they are a nice even, golden brown.
Transfer to a rack to cool completely before storing them in an airtight container.

Boiling taralli and laid down on parchment paper for baking.

Making taralli is labour intensive but the crispy and delicious finished product was more than worthwhile! While I enjoyed both batches, my favourite is still the fennel seeds one. Unfortunately, I didn't put enough chili flakes to get enough kick. I would also add more rosemary next time for more punch. (The recipe above reflects the more generous quantities.) Other great ideas for flavourings would be to roll the boiled taralli with sesame seeds, or with very finely grated Parmesan. They make a perfect pairing with a glass of wine!