Filling:
4 or 5 medium-sized potatoes
¼ cup pecorino
1 tbsp olive oil
½ small onion, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 sprig thyme
Dough:
1 cup AP flour
1 cup semolina flour
¾ - 1 cup water, depending on your kitchen, humidity levels, etc.
Sauce:
½ stick butter
Cracked pepper
***
Directions:
Submerge potatoes in a pot filled with cold water. Bring to a boil and cook until potatoes are soft when pierced with a fork. While potatoes are cooking:
Saute onions in a skillet with 1 tbsp butter on low heat. Cook for 15 or so minutes, stirring occasionally, until translucent and golden. Add minced garlic, continue cooking for 5 more minutes. Important: don’t get impatient and burn the onions or the garlic. They should cook slowly – this is how you achieve a caramelized taste. If the skillet looks dry and it feels like the onions are going to burn, add a bit more butter or oil. Remove from heat when finished.
Either by hand or in your KitchenAid mixer, combine the 2 cups of flour and 1 cup water and knead until smooth, around 5 minutes. Roll into a ball, wrap in plastic or cover with a wet cloth and allow dough to rest for 30 minutes.
Remove potatoes from water, peel and mash while still hot. This is important otherwise the potatoes can develop a gummy texture. Add caramelized onions + garlic, pecorino, 1 tbsp olive oil, and 1 sprig of thyme. Mix well.
Once the dough has rested, use your KitchenAid pasta attachment or any pasta machine/hand crank to roll the dough out until it’s almost translucent: setting 6 on the KitchenAid. If you don’t have a pasta machine, you can roll the dough out with a rolling pin on a well-floured surface. Once the dough has reached desired thinness, use a 3-4 inch diameter mug (or cookie cutter if you’re fancy like that) to make circle-shaped cut-outs in the dough. Stack the circles (with plenty of semolina or AP flour between them) so you get a stack of pasta wrappers.
Now it’s time to fold the culurgiones into their beautiful braid-like selves. This process is a bit intricate so instead of attempting to describe it with words, please visit my IGTV video for a tutorial.
To finish, boil culurgiones until they float. Meanwhile, brown ½ stick of butter in a pan. Plate the culurgiones, drizzle with brown butter, top with cracked pepper. Voila!
