Shoulder Season Brown Butter Papardelle

It’s a magical time of year for the culinarily-minded in New England.  The bridge between the hottest days of summer being edged out by the cooler nights of early fall means that just about every kind of produce is available in abundance.  A visit to a farmstand is somewhere between entralling and overwhelming — so much produce to eat and so little time to eat it!

This year’s Shoulder Season holds a bit more meaning than usual.  I have just decided to leave my job and go to culinary school.  It has been on my mind since I started college a decade ago, and Hubtastic and I concluded that the timing now is perfect.  I start back at BU in January (I say “back”  because it is also my undergraduate alma mater) for an intensive program, and then… I don’t know what after.  For now, the prospect of culinary school on the horizon has re-enlivened my passion for creativity in the kitchen after a few months of just making the same few dishes (I’m looking at you, tacos) over and over.

So there I was last week, staring at the gorgeous tomatoes, corn, and basil, trying to conjure up a new way to serve them.  Typically, I leave everything raw and toss with a vinaigrette for a refreshing and filling summer salad, but I knew that’d leave Hubtastic looking for the rest of his dinner.  I’ve posted before about how soothing I find pasta-making to be, so I improvised: we’d have papardelle with brown-butter sauce, broiled cherry tomatoes, and corn.  Inspired by my success with ravioli, I figured some basil (which I have growing on a windowsill and still haven’t killed!) and pine nuts would add freshness and crunch, respectively.

But that wasn’t creative enough to satisfy my newfound zeal.  Why not put the brown butter in the pasta?  A quick Google search revealed that I, evidently, was the first person to ever consider this.  “Brown butter pasta dough” led me, on the first page of results, to recipes from many illustrious names including Alton Brown, New York Times, Saveur, Half Baked Harvest, and King Arthur Flour, but the brown butter always took the form of a sauce, which is old news.  

I had to create, apparently.  I did a little research on the trusty Serious Eats website and then threw out all the guidelines they so painstakingly provided (which, to be fair, one of the guidelines was to break the rules and do what you want).  My plain pasta dough recipe has 350g of flour (Doppio Zero is best but normal AP flour works in a pinch), 3 eggs,  1 yolk, and about 2-3 tablespoons/small splashes of water. 

For this idea to work, I’d have to risk removing the extra yolk (mostly fat and water), and replacing it with 4 tablespoons of butter (also mostly fat and water), which had been melted and lightly browned on the stove.  I’ve made enough dough to know what texture I’m looking for after mixing and kneading, so if I got something totally weird, I figured I could toss the dough and go back to square one if needed.  Fortunately, after an extra tablespoon of water and about 10 extra minutes of kneading (in a stand mixer), the dough came together beautifully and the kitchen, my hands, and the Kitchenaid all smelled like brown butter.

After the dough and I got an hour’s rest, I rolled and hand-cut into wide ribbons. From here, everything was smooth-sailing. The tomatoes were tossed in oil, salt, and pepper, and aggressively broiled until almost blackened. The corn was severed from the cob and lightly toasted in a bit more butter along with a thinly-sliced garlic clove, pine nuts, and a sprinkle of salt. While the pasta boiled in salty water for about 2 minutes, I tossed the tomatoes in with the corn, tested for seasoning, and readied basil leaves and parmesan as well as serving dishes and eating utensils.

I drained the pasta, still slightly under-done, using tongs and added it directly to the pan with the vegetables to toss and finish cooking. At this point, the whole house smelled like brown butter, and pausing to take a few photos was excruciating. You’re welcome.

Sometimes, taking a risk pays off.  This pasta-dough leap-of-faith surely did — hopefully culinary school will too!