Introducing a new format for Wild Table, with: several interconnecting parts

Monday: Wild Bite and a Glass of Wine-with a recipe

Tuesday: Wild Drink

Wednesday: Wild Table

Thursday: Wild Culture

Friday: Wild Wine/Beer usually something really small producer, organic, biodynamic or just plain fun!—

Wild Bite

Early fall dinner: Freshly made pasta sheets filled with pureed pumpkin- then drizzled with a bit of tangy and spicy watercress pesto, a splash of brown butter and some -cave aged 5 year old parma cheese scraped on top.

Recipe for pasta sheets:

* 3 1/2 cups Semolina Flour
* 4 extra-large eggs at room temp. Support a local chicken farmer. Buy their eggs!

Mound the flour in the center of a large wooden cutting board or stoneware bowl. Make a well in the middle of the flour, crack the eggs into another container removing any pieces of shell, then add the eggs. Using a fork, beat together the eggs and begin to incorporate the flour starting with the inner rim of the well. It will be very messy, so have some cool water to dip your hands into on the side. As you incorporate the eggs, keep pushing the flour up to retain the well shape. The dough will come together in a loose mass when about half of the flour is incorporated.

Kneading the dough should be done with both hands, primarily using the palms of your hands. Add more flour, in 1/2-cup increments, if the dough is too sticky. Once the dough is a cohesive mass, remove the dough from the board and scrape up any left over dry bits. Lightly flour the board and continue kneading for 3 more minutes. The dough should be elastic and a little sticky. Continue to knead for another 3 minutes, remembering to dust your board with flour when necessary. Place dough in a ceramic or stoneware container and set aside for 30 minutes at room temperature. Cover bowl with a damp cloth. Roll with a wooden rolling pin and form as desired.

Note: Do not skip the kneading or resting portion of this recipe, they are essential for a light pasta.

Cook pasta sheets in boiling water until they float to the surface *about a minute or so* and remove from the water carefully not to tear, .

Sugar Pumpkin Puree

Roast a small Sugar Pumpkin at 400 degrees with a splash of Grade B (Dark Amber Cooking Syrup) in the cavity.

Let cool and puree in a food processor. Adjust for seasoning with a bit of Maple Syrup and tiny bit of salt if needed, remember, the cheese is salty. Add a teaspoon of the pumpkin puree to the pasta sheet, cover with another sheet and cut to size.

Watercress Pesto

Watercress

Freshly Toasted Pine Nuts

1/4 cup Parmigiano Cheese Older is always better!

scant dash sea salt

Best EVOO you can find.

add olive oil a drizzle at a time to the watercress, pine nuts, scant dash of sea salt and cheese in a food processor or mortar/pestle.

Brown Butter

Lately, I’ve been eating a really European tasting butter from a fabulous farm out in Long Valley, NJ.

Take about 2 tablespoons of the best butter (unsalted always!) you can buy.

In a copper pan, cook over really low heat until it takes on the color of hazelnuts and smells sweet like roasting nuts… use this to drizzle on plate, then pasta pillows filled with the sweet pumpkin, then drizzle with watercress pesto, then roughly scrape some cheese over the top..

Serve on a heated plate or bowl with a glass of:

Wild Wine for Wild Bite

A wine from the mystic named Abe Schoener called Scholium. The specific wine is called NAUCRATIS from the Lost Slough Vineyard. Small producer juice from a Greek Scholar.

“Utterly dry and balanced” is a perfect description of this wine.