The Return of Alba White Truffles

by Caitlin Collins

As if the stormy weather weren't enough of an indicator, the cold season's arrival has been marked by the appearance of our favorite early winter produce, such as persimmon and the first batch of hedgehog mushrooms. However, nothing brings more excitement to our staff (and patrons!) than the return of Alba white truffles.

If you've ever had these heavenly Italian imports shaved over your food, it's an experience nearly impossible to forget -- the sensory intoxication that occurs in your nose and mouth is unlike anything else. However, if you have yet to try them, you are incredibly fortunate to still have this experience ahead of you.

Tim's New Pasta Toy

The range of tools Tim Stewart employs when creating Altura's pastas can span from simple wooden cylinder-shaped rollers to a classic KitchenAid pasta press, but these devices only render so many types of pasta. The uniform, long noodles of spaghetti, for example, are something that cannot be realistically formed by hand in a timely basis.
Hence marks the arrival of the pasta extruder. As its name suggests, pasta is forced down a tube and through one of various screens to create a perfectly uniform pasta as long as you'd prefer. Tim is using a screen to create bigoli, a long pasta that is slightly thicker than spaghetti.

A New Ravioli: Asparagus Casoncelli

by Caitlin Collins

Casoncelli (kah-son-chell-ee) are a special kind of ravioli with origins in Lombardia, a northeastern region of Italy. New this week, the casoncelli are filled with springtime asparagus.

ASPARAGUS CASONCELLI
Robiola La Tur, Crispy Braised Pork Belly

Casoncelli is a unique example of ravioli despite its many interpretations because the pocket containing the pasta filling is folded, thereby creating more vessels for delicious ragus and sauces. Our pasta crafter Tim Stewart experimented with four different pasta shapes before deciding on a signature spiral form.

Crafting Altura's Stuffed Pastas

by Caitlin Collins

Pasta-making is an art requiring patience and practice, but stuffed pastas can be especially challenging. Luckily, our pasta expert Tim Stewart is great at crafting stuffed pastas such as ravioli.

Altura currently has two stuffed pastas on the menu -- foraged mushroom ravioli and squab mezzaluna. Watch Tim as he carefully makes our house pastas!

FORAGED MUSHROOM RAVIOLI
Stinging Nettle, Hedgehog Mushrooms, Wild Onion Oil

The foraged mushroom ravioli is currently being served in a stinging nettle dough. The nettles are chosen mostly for their vivid green color, but you can also smell them in the dough. Nettle flavor also comes through more strongly than other greens such as spinach, though it is still fairly faint.

Tim takes the rolled-out dough made of nettles, egg yolks, and flour, and feeds it through the pasta machine. "The first thing I'm trying to do is get my dough in one solid sheet, and the second thing is to get it all the same width, about the width of the pasta maker. Once my sheets are together, my next task is to make it uniform," he says.