Onion Ash Tagliatelle, Brown Butter Sage, Mushroom Conserva, Ricotta, Cured Egg Yolk

My favorite homemade pasta dish to date.

Onion Ash Tagliatelle, Brown Butter Sage, Mushroom Conserva, Ricotta, Cured Egg Yolk

Serves 4

This dish, like my silly high-concept kimchi fried rice, came about while playing with a fridge full of Jeremy Fox larders. Fox likes onion ash for it’s ability to add a quick and seamless smokiness to dishes; I’ve grown to enjoy it’s chestnut and earthy undertones as manifested in pasta. The conserva, ricotta and cured egg yolk are delicious dolloped on everything. I like to think the pairing of all of these ingredients makes for a nicely rustic, savory main course. Recently, I served this dish as the main course for a 5-course tasting menu for my family on Mother’s Day. It seemed to have gone over pretty well. 

For the tagliatelle with brown butter sage:

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 tablespoon onion ash powder
• kosher salt
• 2 tablespoon butter
• 14 sage leaves

For the mushroom conserva:

• 8 oz cremini mushrooms, cleaned and dried
• kosher salt
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1/3 cup pickle brine
• 2 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary

For the cured egg yolk:

• 12 egg yolks
• 1 pound sugar
• 1 pound salt

Make the onion ash: Preheat the oven to 250. place however many green onion stalks or stems which are otherwise too woody to eat on a tray and bake until they are black and charred, about 25 minutes. Grind them to a powder and store in an airtight container indefinitely.


Make the mushroom conserva: Toss the mushrooms in a bowl of clean water, scrubbing off the dirt. Dry the mushrooms with a paper towel and allow them to air dry for 10 minutes. Toss the mushrooms with a pinch or two of salt in a bowl and let rest for 30 minutes. This will help draw out the water quicker. Preheat one tablespoon of olive oil in a pot over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms and and allow them to cook until all of the water has cooked out, around 10 minutes. Add the chopped rosemary, olive oil, and pickle brine and bring to a simmer. Once at a simmer, remove the pot from the heat and allow the mushrooms to steep for 30 minutes. Transfer the mushrooms and liquid to a blender and pulse one or two times. Transfer to to an airtight container and store for up to two weeks. 

Homemade ricotta preferred.

Make the cured egg yolk: Mix the sugar and salt together by hand or with a food processor. Add 1/3 of the mixture to a rimmed baking pan. Using the top of an egg, create 12 depressions in the salt-sugar cure, making sure not to expose the bottom of the pan. Separate the yolks from the whites and carefully add them to each of the depressions. Cover completely with the remaining cure so that they are all totally covered. Cover the baking pan in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 days. After 2 days, flip all of the egg yolks. They will be firm and easy to flip. Cover again with the cure and refrigerate for two more days. Remove the yolks from the cure and rinse them under gentle running water. Pat dry with a paper towel. Dehydrate the eggs in a dehydrator at 135 degrees for a day or two. Alternately, you can set the yolks on a rack in the oven set to 100 degrees with a convection fan running for 1 day. Once dehydrated, store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 weeks.

Make the tagliatelle: Blend the eggs and onion ash until fully incorporated. Combine the egg mixture with the flour in a stand mixer and mix on low until the dough comes together, about 30 seconds. Alternately, you can mix everything together by hand. Remove the dough from the mixer and knead by hand for 5 minutes on a flour dusted surface. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and allow it to rest for 30 minutes before continuing. Alternately, you can let the wrapped dough rest in the fridge for 24 hours. The color will only intensify.

At this point the dough should feel very supple and relaxed. Run the dough through a pasta attachment, working your way to the thinnest setting. Alternately, you may roll out the dough as thin as you possibly can using a rolling pin.  Cut the sheet into 12-inch lengths and dust both sides and the work surface with flour. Allow the pasta sheets to dry, flipping them after ten minutes, until they are nearly leather hard.

Delicious tagliatelle waiting to be tossed.

Flour a cutting board. Roll up the pasta sheets like a poster and very thinly slice the pasta roll across the width, as you would chiffonade. I like to cut 2 or three pasta rolls at a time, as it guarantees equally sized pasta noodles. Toss and shuffle the pasta in your hands to unfurl it. Place the noodles on a parchment lined baking sheet and continue until all of the remaining pasta is cut. Allow it to dry to for 30 minutes, until leather hard. If you’re not going to eat the pasta on the day you make it, roll the pasta into nests and place them in a sealed plastic bag. It will last in the fridge for a few days. Just make sure to add an extra ten seconds to the boiling time.

Assemble the dish: Bring a large pot of water to a roaring boil. Salt it; it should taste like the sea. Meanwhile, heat a saute pan over medium-high heat. Melt the butter and begin to brown it. When it darkens and smells nutty, add the sage leaves, allowing them to fry in the brown butter for 15 seconds. Remove the pan from the heat to prevent the butter from scorching. Remove the sage leaves from the butter and place them on a paper towel. Add the pasta to the boiling water and allow to cook for 1 full minute. Drain the pasta or skim it out with a spyder and add it to the brown butter pan. Stir to coat.

Add the cooked pasta to the plates. Follow with a couple spoonfuls of mushroom conserva, followed by ricotta, and finally, shavings of cured egg yolk. Garnish with fried sage leaves.