Who wants to hear a funny tale about how I came up with this recipe and my life story about trying to learn pasta? No one? Cool, here’s a recipe for pappardelle with escalivada sauce.

Escalivada Sauce

• 3 Red Bell Peppers
• 1 Yellow Onion
• 1 Eggplant
• 4 Cloves Garlic
• 1 Pt Heavy Cream
• 4 Piquillo Peppers
• 1/4 tsp Hot Pimenton
• Salt and Pepper TT

Roast on a grill the red bell peppers, eggplant, onion, and garlic. If you can’t grill you can roast the vegetables in an oven at 425° for around 45 minutes. Remove peppers and place in a bowl and cover with plastic for 15 minutes. This will help to remove the skin. Peel the skin from the peppers, remove the top and seeds and place in a pot with the inside of the eggplant, roasted onion, roasted garlic, piquillo peppers and heavy cream. Place back in the oven and cook for another 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

Place the mix in a blender and blend until smooth. Add hot pimenton and salt and pepper to taste. If sauce is too thick you can add a little more cream.

Egg Yolk Dough

• 170 g Type 00 Flour (or 170 g AP Flour)

• 55 g Durum Flour
• 9 Egg Yolks
• 1 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 3 Tbsp Water plus more as needed

For the pasta I am again using the egg yolk dough recipe from the book Mastering Pasta. Sift the flour into a pile on the table and make a well. Place the egg yolks in the flour well and gently mix together with your fingers or a fork. Add the water to the mix and then finally the oil. If mix is too dry add a little bit more water, if it is too wet add a dash more of flour. Knead the dough for around 5-8 minutes until it is smooth. Form into a flat ball and cover with plastic wrap. Let the dough rest for around 1 hour or store in fridge until use. After dough has rested separate into 3 pieces and roll out into flat ovals. Lightly dust the pasta with flour and pass through a pasta roller on the widest setting and run the dough through, continue to pass the dough once or twice through each setting continuing to narrow the roller until you get the desired thickness. For the pappardelle I did 1/16″ thick. Finally using an accordion cutter or a knife cut the pappardelle into 3/4″-1″strips and lightly dust with flour to keep from sticking together. Place pasta in boiling water and cook for around 3-4 minutes until al dente.

Drain pasta from the water and toss in the escalivada sauce. Top with fresh shaved manchego and charred scallions. Or don’t! Now that we are past the recipe and you got what you came here for, here’s the story about the