So the lesson learnt is, don't put nori sheets in the air fryer

A recipe for maltagliati with creamy miso mushrooms and nori

no.18
Maltagliati with Creamy Miso Mushrooms and Nori

This might sound somewhat unrelatable, but this is my version of a lazy pasta. Granted, there is still the effort that goes into making it fresh, but choosing a shape that literally translates to ‘badly cut’ means this can be done quickly and without much thought. It really doesn’t matter how these look at the end, because they aren’t supposed to be perfect to start with.

The regional nuances of maltagliati are quite interesting, and I’ll touch on that further below, but if I were to try and describe this shape comparatively in terms of mouthfeel, it would be similar to fazzoletti or mandilli de saea, the silk handkerchief pasta - albeit, not quite as fine, unless of course your preference is to roll these that little bit thinner.

Miso pasta isn’t exactly new and exciting. If you spend any time on IG/TikTok I am certain you would have seen some variation of a miso butter pasta this year (like most things on the internet, they are repeated so incessantly until one day any ounce of original creativity is totally devoid - but I’ll save that gripe for another day), and it’s for good reason - miso brings umami to the palette and when paired with other delicious items (butter, for example), it elevates. It’s a simple way of packing in a punch of flavour, and so naturally pairing miso with mushrooms is a bit of a no brainer.

Me, every time I see a video of a groundbreaking miso butter sauce

Approximately two years ago I saw the popular London pasta resto Bancone post a stunner of a gnocchi dish, but what stood out to me was that dusted atop its sea of creaminess was a seaweed powder, and I have been intending to work that into a recipe ever since.

It’s actually very straightforward and easy to achieve. Toast nori sheets and grind to a powder. Sounds simple enough, right? Wrong, if like me you are partial to a shortcut and decide to throw it in the air fryer for a couple of minutes instead. I always forget about how air fryers work, and it wasn’t until I could smell a fire like burn to then turn and see smoke billowing out of the appliance, that I realised the air flow had plastered the weightless nori sheets to the hot grill on the top.

If you take one thing away from this post, don’t try that.

Serves 2

Ingredients

Pasta

• Half a batch of my master pasta dough - I whisk the whole eggs to get an exact quantity a bit more easily, but this roughly equates to 1 whole egg, and 2-3 yolks for 180g flour.

Nori powder

• 2 nori seaweed sheets, like the ones you buy for making sushi

Mushroom Sauce

• 100g Shitake mushrooms, sliced

• 20g dried porcini

• 100g unsalted butter

• 40g white miso paste

• 1 shallot, finely diced

• 2 garlic cloves, minced

• 1/2 cup dry white wine

• 1/2 cup porcini brodo (see notes below)

• 40ml thickened cream (double cream, or heavy cream if you’re in the UK or US)

• Parmigiano Reggiano - a big handful grated, roughly 30g

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Method

Pasta

1. Make the pasta dough.

2. Once rested, divide the dough into two pieces assuming you are only making a half batch for this recipe. Work with one at a time - flatten the piece with your hand or a rolling pin before passing it through the thickest setting on your pasta machine. Fold the edges in to create a neat rectangle that fits the width of your pasta machine, and run it through the thickest setting again until your dough is uniform in shape

3. Continue passing your dough through the machine, working through each thickness setting until you get to setting 7.

4. Cut each sheet into three strips running lengthways, then cut each of those into odd shapes to make the maltagliati.

5. Set aside on a baking tray lined with fine semolina until ready to cook.

Nori powder

1. Using tongs, hold each nori sheet 5cm over an open flame, toasting on all sides for about 20 to 30 seconds.

2. If you don’t have a gas burner to do this, you can place the nori sheets on a baking tray and roast in the oven for 20 minutes at 140c (280F), turning half way through.

3. Tear the sheets into smaller pieces. Fill up your spice grinder about half way full then grind until you have a fine powder. Continue with the rest of the nori sheets.

4. If you don’t have a spice grinder, you can also do this in a blender, pulsing first until the sheets have broken down, then blending on high until you have a fine powder.

NB nori powder should keep well for a couple of months in an airtight container.

Mushroom sauce

1. First, soak the porcini mushrooms in boiled water - about a cup - and let them rehydrate for 10 minutes.

2. Remove the porcini mushrooms from the water but don’t discard this as it’ll become our porcini brodo to use later.

3. Squeeze any excess water from the porcini and chop them very roughly.

4. Melt butter on a medium heat and stir in the miso paste.

5. Add the Shitake and porcini mushrooms and cook until the Shitake start to soften.

6. Add the shallots and continue to cook until soft and translucent, then add the minced garlic.

7. Once fragrant, deglaze with white wine and allow the alcohol to cook off, before adding the porcini brodo.

8. Reduce the heat and leave the mushrooms to very gently bubble away while you cook the pasta.

9. Cook the maltagliati in generously salted water that has come to a rolling boil - they will only take a couple of minutes.

10. Scoop out with a spider and drop directly into the mushrooms along with the cream and a handful of grated Parmigiano Reggiano.

11. Toss and stir to marry, then serve topped with a dusting of nori powder.

Enjoy with the suggested wine and soundtrack below, available to paid subscribers ❤️

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All about Maltagliati

Maltagliati is a compound of the words male (bad) and tagliare (to cut) and translates directly as badly cut, an implication of the “technique” used to make this pasta.