Joseph Helm, the executive chef at Subito, says making pasta is a labor of love. “It’s easy food done right with high quality ingredients,” he explains. “You have to put the labor of grinding the cheese into it. You have to put the labor of making the pasta into it.” He recently showed us how he makes one of the restaurant’s featured dinner entrées, Lion’s Mane Lumache. (“Lumache” means “snail” in Italian—check out the snail shell shape!)

Photograph by HATSUE
Helm blends semola and pasta flours imported from Italy in a pasta extruder. Semola is a finer ground version of semolina flour (used for pizza dough), which gives a better texture inside the pasta.

Photograph by HATSUE
A mixture of egg whites, egg yolks, olive oil, and water is added to the flour mix, and churned for around 90 seconds, until the mixture looks like popcorn.

Photograph by HATSUE
Using a bronze die specifically for lumache pasta, the mixture is extruded from the machine.

Photograph by HATSUE
The pasta is left to dry on racks for two days.

Photograph by HATSUE
When the pasta is completely dry, it’s boiled, the lion’s mane mushroom is browned and mixed with a sauce of butter, garlic, shallot, wine, chili flakes, and brodo (Parmesan stock). “This is all done by eye, flavor, taste, and experience,” Helm says.

Photograph by HATSUE
The pasta and mushrooms are tossed in pecorino.

Photograph by HATSUE
The dish is finished with citrus zest and pea tendrils before it’s served.
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