Eggplant tortelli with coffee-flavored mussel sauce
"Mussels and coffee go very well together." And if Aurora Mazzucchelli, a Michelin-starred chef with her Casa Mazzucchelli in Sasso Marconi (Bologna), says so, we believe it.
Ingredients · Servings 6 people
- 150 g durum wheat semolina
- 100 g white flour
- 2 eggs
- 1 egg yolk
- 200 g dried cannellini beans
- 3 aubergines
- aromatic herbs
- sale
- extra virgin olive oil
- celery
- carrot
- onion
- garlic
- oregano
- mint
- savory
- 1 kg mussels
- garlic
- cream of beans
- extra virgin olive oil
- white wine
- sale
- moka espresso coffee
- peanut oil
- chives
- oregano
Method · 2 ore e 10 minuti più 8 ore di ammollo dei fagioli
- Mix the semolina with the flour, then knead in the eggs until smooth. Wrap in plastic wrap and let rest for at least 30 minutes.
- Soak the beans in water for about 8 hours (you can soak them the night before). Drain them and cook them in boiling water with a small piece of celery, half a carrot, half an onion, and 2 peeled garlic cloves for about 35-40 minutes, until soft. Add salt towards the end of cooking.
- Wash the eggplants and cut them in half. Cut one into a few very thin slices, which you'll fry for decoration.
- Score the flesh of the others with a small knife, like a grid, then brush them with oil, salt, and sprinkle with fresh herbs.
- Place the aubergines on a baking tray covered with baking paper, then bake them at 180°C for about 40 minutes.
- Remove them from the oven and scoop out all the pulp with a spoon: collect it in a sieve and let it rest, pressing it a little, so as to eliminate all the residual water.
- Remove the vegetables and garlic and blend the boiled beans to obtain a cream.
- Weigh 400 g of aubergine pulp and mix it with 200 g of bean puree (the quantities may vary slightly, depending on the size of the aubergines you choose: adjust the weight of the bean puree accordingly).
- Blend everything together, adding a finely chopped mix of herbs: oregano, mint, and savory. Season with salt if necessary. Then, scoop the resulting filling into a piping bag.
- Roll out the dough, a little at a time, using a pasta machine, to a thickness of about 2 mm. Cut it into discs using a 6 cm diameter pastry cutter, placing a cherry-sized ball of filling in the center of each disc. Fold the discs over, first into a crescent shape, then into a circle, forming small cappellacci. Continue in this way until you've used up all the dough, making about 120 tortelli (20 per person).
- Arrange them on a floured tray and keep them ready to cook.
- Open the mussels with a drizzle of oil and a clove of garlic. Deglaze with a splash of white wine, cover with a lid, and cook until they open.
- Turn off the heat and shell the mussels.
- Set aside about twenty for the dish. Weigh the mussels (keeping a few whole for the dish) and blend them with an equal amount of bean puree. Finally, add two teaspoons of coffee: taste the cream and adjust the salt.
- Fry the aubergine slices in a small saucepan with peanut oil at 190°C for 1 minute, draining them on kitchen paper.
- Cook the tortelli in boiling salted water (or, if you prefer, reuse the mussel cooking water, adding more).
- Drain the tortelli and serve them on the mussel and coffee cream, garnishing with the reserved mussels, the fried aubergines, fresh oregano leaves and chopped chives.
My parents taught me the basics, traditional recipes. It's very important, because that's where you can make the leap: tradition gives you a structure, a solidity, a foundation that you can then adapt to your personality. That's what my dad did, and that's what I do too.
To prepare this dish, Aurora recommends drying the eggplants thoroughly once they're fleshy. The most surprising part is the coffee-flavored mussel sauce: when you taste it, the coffee first strikes you, but then, towards the end, the mussel flavor emerges.