Hi, I am Todd Gray from Equinox Restaurant in Washington DC. Today we are going to be making handmade orecchiette, the ear-shaped pasta with spring vegetables, Swiss chard, and asparagus.
We have got an ingredient list of semolina flour, salt and water for our pasta dough, butter, olive oil, shallots, garlic, our asparagus tips, rainbow Swiss chard, diced carrots, heavy cream, and finally Parmigiano-Reggiano to finish our dish.
We are going to need some basic equipment and tools to do our dish. Stand-up mixer, a short knife, a salad cutting board, a microplaner to finish our dish with the Parmigiano for grating, a pot for blanching, a stainless steel mixing bowl, a mesh drainer, and sauté pan for finishing our dish.
Remember when we are in the kitchen, so always practice safety first. We are always around shape knives and open flames so lets be careful when we are working we stay in the kitchen and not in the emergency room.
A brief bio in Equinox Restaurant and myself, we opened in 1999. We were nominated by Esquire Magazine, Gourmet and Town & Country for Best New Restaurant in 1999. In the nine years with my wife, I have had the restaurant. We have been nominated by the Restaurant Association of Washington five times for a Fine Dinning Restaurant of the year. I have been nominated six times by the Restaurant Association for Chef of the Year and I have been fortunate enough to receive five nominations by the James Beard Foundation for the Best Chef Mid-Atlantic Region.
I have chosen this dish for you today for three reasons. It showcases seasonality with asparagus and Swiss chard, it emphasizes great technique, we are going to show you how to hand make this pasta, and three it is a very successful recipe that’s easy for you to prepare at home. Let’s get started by making our pasta dough.