Sample Coffee teams up with Lulu’s to bring you fresh handmade pasta as part of the Sample Staples repertoire.
You may have previously heard of Lulu’s (Monica Luppi) for one of her popular restaurant or cooking workshop pop-ups in Sydney’s Inner West. Lulu’s is a Pro Shop neighbour but she comes originally from the Italian Emilia-Romagna region – famous for the Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and now also for being one of the Italian provinces to be hit hard by the coronavirus.
This #collab is born from a shared love for coffee, food and caring for our people. By combining our skills we want to bring extra value to our neighbours, in the shape of affordable food that is made here using quality, ingredients.
All Sample Staples x Lulu’s fresh pasta is 100% handcrafted by Monica in St Peters.
Each pack sale donates $0.20 to planting native trees with the Carbon Neutral Charity Fund and $1 is towards funding meals with OzHarvest.
Sample Staples x Lulu’s shapes
Orechiette
Strozzapreti
Malloreddus (aka gnocchetti sardi)
Lulu’s Recipe #1: Vegan broccolini sauce with cashew crunch
‘Sauce’ Ingredients:
* 6 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
* Chilli flakes to taste
* 2 bunches broccolini, separated into florets and stems
* Olive oil (a good one if possible)
* A few tbsp vegetable oil like canola (or something with a high smoke point)
* Salt to taste
Cashew Crunch Mixture Ingredients:
* 1 cup raw cashews
* 1 tbsp smoked paprika
* Cayenne pepper to taste
* 1 tbsp garlic powder
* 2/3 cloves black garlic or one tbsp black garlic powder if you have it
* 3 tbsp fried garlic (you can get from Asian grocery in Thai section)
* Salt to taste
* 2 tbsp olive oil
Sauce Method: Take broccolini stems and chop quite finely or whizz up in food processor until almost pulverized. Pour a generous amount of good olive oil into the pan, put on medium-low heat and add garlic. Be careful not to get it too brown; keep heat low. Add your whizzed up/chopped broccolini stems, salt, and chilli flakes. Add more oil if it looks too dry. Cook until broccolini is soft but retains some colour. Remove from pan and set aside.
Either wash your pan or get a clean one and put on high heat. Toss your florets in a few tbsp vegetable oil and drop into it. You don’t want to use olive oil for this because we want high heat and your smoke alarm WILL go off if you use the wrong oil! Let the florets sit in the pan until they char on one side, then toss, but don’t stir too much. Cook the broccolini florets for just a few minutes until they are still bright green but have some charred bits. You don’t want them floppy!
Turn off heat, put pan aside and unite your previous broccolini stem mixture with the florets.
Cashew Crunch Mixture Method: Blitz cashews in food processor or blender until they resemble a crumble, but don’t go too far or you might make cashew butter! It’s ok if they are uneven.
Heat up olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Add black garlic if using and let it melt down a bit. Add cashews, paprika, garlic powder, cayenne and salt. Keeping pan moving, toast the cashew mixture evenly until it’s slightly browned and fragrant. Turn off heat and add the fried garlic. Test for seasoning, adjust and set aside.
Finishing the dish… Prepare your room temperature broccolini mix in a large saucepan.
Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Use the smallest pot you can for the amount of pasta you have as the less water you use, the more starch will be in the water and the better your sauce will be! Toss in your pasta. Turn on your heat on the sauce to a medium. Use a slotted spoon or spider to scoop your pasta into the broccolini sauce. Use a measuring cup or mug to scoop about ½ cup of pasta water into your pan and vigorously stir and shake the pasta and broccolini until the pasta is well coated and the sauce is nice and hot. If you need to add more pasta water, go ahead!
Place pasta into bowls and sprinkle generously with cashew crunch mixture.
Lulu’s Recipe #2: Lulu’s ragu’
This is enough for leftovers, so use what you need, it only tastes better the next day!
Ingredients:
* Extra virgin olive oil
* 1 stalk celery
* 1 carrot
* 1 brown onion
* 2 bay leaves
* 1 glass white wine
* 25g pancetta
* 250g pork mince (avoid too lean if possible)
* 250g veal mince
* 1 small can tomato polpa (chunks)
* 2 tbsp tomato paste
* 1 cup beef stock
* 150ml whole milk
* 50g butter
* Salt and pepper to taste
* Parmigiano reggiano
Method: Chop carrot, celery and onion very, very fine. Almost pulverized! Use your food processor if you need to. These need to melt away into the sauce. Chop pancetta fine. Heat up olive oil in pan and add pancetta, carrot, celery and onion mixture over low-med heat. Cook for at least 30-40 minutes, stirring frequently, until mixture is jammy and very cooked down.
Add glass of white wine and scrape any stuck on bits off bottom of the pan. Add tomato paste and bay leaves, cook for a further 5 minutes while stirring often. Add mince slowly and chop it up as you add so you have no big chunks left. This is important! It should be very very finely broken up. Add tomato pulp and beef stock and stir, lower heat to low. Let it cook uncovered for at least 2 hours and up to 6 hours, watching and stirring from time to time to see how far it has reduced. If it reduces too quickly, turn down heat and add more stock if necessary.
When it’s reduced enough and you are ready to move on, add the milk. stir and let it cook again for another 20-30 minutes. (while this is happening bring your pasta water to a boil and cook pasta). When pasta is ready drain it and keep about ½ cup cooking water aside. Keep the amount of ragu’ you need in the pan, and put pasta into pan with the reserved pasta water. Stir vigorously and add butter and about ½ cup parmigiano. Mix over medium-low heat until it comes together, maybe 1-2 minutes.
Serve in bowls and top with more cheese!