Forest Fettucine with Morels & Breast of Pheasant
Submitted by skivrak
Forest fettucine with morels and breast of pheasant: handmade morel-powder pasta tossed in a morel cream sauce, topped with seared pheasant breast and buttered fiddlehead ferns. Spring foraging season on a plate, fine-dining style.
YIELD
4 servingsPREP
20 minCOOK
35 minREADY
2 hrsThis is a proper celebration-of-spring dish, the kind you’d pay $60 for at a Michelin-starred restaurant. Dried morel mushrooms get ground into a fine powder and worked directly into the semolina-and-flour pasta dough, so the finished fettucine carries a deep, earthy, smoky aroma baked right into every strand.
Fresh morels go into the cream sauce, which builds on butter-softened shallots before the heavy cream reduces to a silky pour-over consistency. A pinch of nutmeg and white pepper keeps the sauce elegant without muddying the mushroom flavor.
The pheasant breasts are the star protein: quick-seared in butter to medium, rested, then sliced thin and fanned over the pasta. Fiddlehead ferns, briefly blanched and tossed in butter, ring the plate for a forager’s garnish. Asparagus tips work if fiddleheads are out of season.
Pro Tips
- Grind dried morels to a fine powder in a clean spice mill or coffee grinder, chunky bits won’t hydrate properly in the dough and leave hard flecks in the pasta.
- Soak dried morels in warm water for exactly 5 minutes, too long and they turn spongy. Reserve the soaking liquid for enriching other sauces.
- Rest the pasta dough refrigerated for at least an hour, gluten relaxation is what lets the dough roll out thin without tearing.
- Pheasant breast dries out fast because it’s so lean, pull at medium (150°F / 65°C internal) and rest 5 minutes for tender, juicy slices.
- Scrub fiddleheads thoroughly to remove the brown papery fuzz, unwashed fiddleheads taste grassy and can cause stomach upset.
Variations
- Swap pheasant for chicken breast or veal medallions for a more available protein.
- Use porcini powder in the dough instead of morel for a deeper, more woodsy flavor.
- Add a splash of dry Madeira or sherry to the cream sauce for extra depth.
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fettucine. Clean any soil clinging to the morel stems.
Place the mushrooms in a spice mill and grind to a fine powder.
Combine the powder with the semolina and all-purpose flours in a food processor and process briefly to blend.
Beat the eggs, egg yolks and oil together and, with the motor running, add the mixture to the flours.
Process until a neat ball forms on top of the blade, about 45 to 60 seconds.
Remove the dough from the machine and knead for a minute on a very lightly floured surface. Pat into a thick cylinder and wrap in plastic.
Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
About 1 hour before serving time, cut the dough across into 6 pieces. Knead, stretch, and cut each piece in a pasta machine or by hand. Spread the fettucine on a tray dusted with semolina. Cover with a towel until cooking time.
Prepare the sauce. Soak the mushrooms in warm water to cover for 5 minutes. (Halve and rinse fresh morels.) Drain the mushrooms, halve them lengthwise and rinse briefly. Cut into small pieces.
Heat the butter in a skillet and add the morels and shallots. Cook over low heat until the shallots are tender.
Add the cream and simmer, stirring often, until the sauce is lightly thickened, about 15 minutes. Season with salt, white pepper and nutmeg to taste.
The sauce can be prepared and gently reheated just before serving.
Rub any fuzz from the fiddlehead ferns and trim the tails to leave about ½ inch. Drop them into boiling salted water and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Drain well. At serving time, heat them through in the butter.
About 20 minutes before serving time, sprinkle the pheasant breasts lightly with salt and white pepper and let them sit at room temperature until you are ready to cook.
Heat the butter in a large, heavy skillet. When it foams, add the breasts and brown lightly for about 5 minutes. Turn and cook over moderately low heat until they are nicely browned and barely done in the center, about 5 more minutes. Remove them and let them sit for 5 minutes.
Drop the noodles into a large quantity of boiling salted water. Return to a boil, stirring. Cook about 1 minute, just until tender.
Drain them thoroughly and toss with three-quarters of the sauce.
Arrange the fettucine on 4 serving plates. Slice each pheasant breast in 6 vertical slices and fan over the pasta.
Top with the remaining sauce and surround with the fiddlehead ferns.
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