Greet fall with 3 hearty pastas

Make pappardelle with white Bolognese, orecchiette with pumpkin and more

Video: Need comfort food? Try this perfect pasta dish

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>>> this morning in "today's kitchen," a hearty pasta is on the menu. our chef recently won a pasta battle on " iron chef ." good morning. good to have you here.

>> thank you very much.

>> such a perfect time of year for a hearty pasta death. is that why you like it?

>> cold weather setting in, brisk mornings that you're not used to. at dinnertime you look for something more filling and comforting and hearty.

>> all about that.

>> you're making a pasta bolognese with a white sauce instead.

>> won't use tomatoes.

>> something you'd find more traditionally in the north at wintertime. goes great with anything, especially great with truffles. those trends start right now and go through the wintertime.

>> excellent. let's get started. what did we do first?

>> ground meat, veal, chicken, some pork and some pancetta. brown that off. remove the oil, add a refresher and brown the vegetables.

>> in fresh oil, the vegetables.

>> we want to reuse the pan, you know, because there's flavor on the bottom so you want to keep all that flavor in the pot.

>> absolutely.

>> what we do is we sweat this down. we'd add the meat back.

>> okay.

>> you can smell it already.

>> smells amazing.

>> and then --

>> like that, saute up.

>> for about 10, 15 minutes . we end up with this. this is everything rendered out.

>> okay.

>> and it's everything softened, so what we do now is add some chicken broth .

>> okay.

>> and we add heavy cream .

>> heavy cream .

>> don't worry about the cream.

>> we're going to reduce this, so like only having half of it.

>> oh, sure.

>> can't reduce it once it hits the waistline, right? not so easy.

>> basically it looks a little bit like a stew. cook this down to a sauce consistency. the cream reduces the fat and everything melds together. one of the garnishes for this is fried sage leaves.

>> love that.

>> in the fall you think about rosemary and sage, a little bit of hot oil , and we just pop them in there.

>> just like that. that easy.

>> when you're done with this oil, can you save it and use it to cook with because it's seasoned with sage.

>> do it until they curl up. really want color, and then we put them on a paper towel to dry.

>> such a nice garnish, you're right, perfect crispness on top.

>> sprinkle a little of sea salt and move it back for garnish.

>> you've made some fresh pasta noodles, is that right?

>> i use fresh pasta . you can buy it in the store.

>> just as fine.

>> change the shape.

>> if you want to undertake the task at home to make it.

>> task at home of making your own pasta . which al roker loves to do.

>> i do that in my spare time , thank you.

>> exactly. we have the bolognese here.

>> that looks amazing.

>> a little bit of olive oil on top.

>> a little bit of grated cheese and top it with a lill bit of peccarino.

>> finished here.

>> finished product here, fresh parmesan and with the sage, as you mentioned, which is great.

>> what other dishes?

>> the orrichete, the vegetable of fall.

>> and i love these.

>> the presentation on these alone.

>> has escarole and pancetta and fresh ricotta.

>> means good eating for us.

>> coming up, maggie gyllenhaal stops by to visit kathie lee and hoda but first your local news and weather.

Show transcript

TODAY recipes

updated 9/21/2012 6:10:11 PM ET

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Shea Gallante, the executive chef and co-owner of New York City restaurant Ciano, shows you how to celebrate the cooler autumn weather with a warm pasta dish. Here, he makes pappardelle with white Bolognese, sage and pecorino, orecchiette with roasted pumpkin and rosemary brown butter, and baked strozzapreti with ricotta, escarole and more.

Recipe: Orecchiette with roasted pumpkin, amoretti and rosemary brown butter (on this page) Recipe: Pappardelle with white Bolognese, sage and pecorino (on this page) Recipe: Baked strozzapreti with ricotta, escarole, pancetta and butternut squash (on this page)

Recipe: Orecchiette with roasted pumpkin, amoretti and rosemary brown butter

Courtesy of Shea Gallante

Ingredients

1 lb orecchiette pasta
3 pumpkins (hubbard, fariytale, Kuri are best)
2 lb butter
4 oz brown sugar
2 sprigs of rosemary
2 tbsp grated nutmeg
8 oz grated parmigiano cheese
4 oz extra virgin olive oil
5 oz amoretti cookies
3 oz garlic
3 oz red onion
8 oz chicken broth

Preparation

Split the pumpkins in half and season with about half of the butter, nutmeg, salt, pepper and brown sugar. Bake in a 350 degree oven until tender. Scrape the flesh from the pumpkins, cool and reserve. When cool, roughly chop the pumpkin.

Crush the amoretti cookies to crumb size. Finely chop the red onion and garlic. Strip all of the rosemary leaves from their branches. Cut the butter into large cubes.

Fill a large sauce pot with generously salted water and bring to a boil. Add the pasta and cook until just al dente.

In a medium sauce pot add about 10 oz of butter and cook over a medium flame until the butter turns a golden nutty brown. Add the rosemary leaves and 1 oz of new butter and reserve.

While the pasta is cooking, heat up a large sauté pan and add the garlic and onions and about 4 oz of butter. Without adding color, sweat the vegetables until they are soft. Add the chicken broth, 4 oz of butter and the chopped pumpkin and cook until it has a sauce-like consistency.

When the pasta is cooked, add it to the pan with the pumpkin and season it with parmigiano cheese and olive oil.

Spoon the rosemary brown butter over top and sprinkle with amoretti crumbs.

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Recipe: Pappardelle with white Bolognese, sage and pecorino

Courtesy of Shea Gallante

Ingredients

1 lb pappardelle pasta
1.5 lb ground veal
1 lb ground pork
.5 lb ground chicken
3 oz pancetta
6 oz white onion
4 oz celery
4 oz carrot
3 oz garlic cloves
1 bunch sage (fresh)
2 qts of chicken broth
1 qt of heavy cream
8 oz white wine
8 oz grated grana padano
4 oz extra virgin olive oil
8 oz canola oil
4 oz pecorino cheese

Preparation

Finely chop the onion, celery, carrots, garlic and pancetta.

In a large pot lightly brown all of the meat. Remove the meat from the pot and absorb any of the fat in the pot. Add the chopped vegetables with half of the olive oil and sweat until they are translucent without adding any color. When the vegetables are soft, add the meat and then add the wine. Cook the wine down until it is dry. Add the chicken broth, heavy cream, half of the sage and simmer slowly until about half of the liquid has evaporated and the meat is tender. Reserve and allow to cool.

Using a small sauce pot, heat the canola oil to 350 degrees and fry the remaining sage leaves. Reserve leaves on absorbent towels for garnish.

Fill a large stock pot with generously salted water and bring to a boil. Cook the pappardelle until al dente.

While the pasta is cooking, bring the Bolognese to a quick simmer in a large sauté pan and then add the pasta when it is done cooking. Finish with the grana cheese and the remaining olive oil.

Plate and shave pecorino cheese on top and garnish with the fried sage leaves.

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Recipe: Baked strozzapreti with ricotta, escarole, pancetta and butternut squash

Courtesy of Shea Gallante

Ingredients

1 lb strozzapreti
1 lb fresh ricotta cheese
1 head escarole
8 oz pancetta
1 butternut squash
4 oz garlic
1 white onion
1 leek
1 lb butter
8 oz grated parmigiano cheese
6 oz extra virgin olive oil

Preparation

The night before, open the ricotta cheese and place it in a fine sieve over a bowl and allow it to drain in a refrigerator overnight.

Split the butternut squash, remove the seeds, peel the skin and cut into small dice. Finely chop the garlic, onion and leeks.

In a large sauce pot, fill with water and season generously with salt and bring to a boil. Add the pasta and cook until just al dente. Reserve.

In a large sauté pan, add the butter, onions, leeks and garlic and sweat until it is soft. Remove the vegetables and add the canola oil and render the pancetta. Add the squash, the escarole and the cooked vegetables and cook until everything is soft.

Toss the cooked pasta, vegetables, grated parmiginao cheese together and place in an oven proof container and top with dallops of the ricotta cheese.

Bake in a 345 degree oven for approximately 35 minutes. When it is removed from the oven, drizzle olive oil on top and sprinkle a little reserved parmigiano cheese.

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