Chef Michelle Minori
Chef Michelle Minori has been named one of The San Francisco Chronicle’s Rising Star Chefs of 2017, and has been included in 7×7’s list of “8 San Francisco Chefs Prove a Woman’s Place Is at the Head of the Kitchen”. You may have watched her compete as a finalist on Season 16 of Bravo’s Top Chef. She also won the Last Chance Kitchen competition…ahem….
Chef Michelle Minori built her culinary pedigree in Michelin starred restaurants across San Francisco. Minori spent a year in Los Angeles to open Faith & Flower, where she used her expansive knowledge of dough to build the bread and pasta production programs.
She later spent 3 years running the kitchen at Flour and Water, where she learned the importance of whole animal utilization, sustainability, and supporting local farmers and the community.
She later served as Executive Sous Chef of Thomas McNaughton’s NeTimeas Restaurant Group, overseeing corporate culinary operations for the group’s many restaurants, including Flour & Water, Aatxe, Cafe du Nord, Salumeria, and Central Kitchen.
Minori opened and operated as Executive Chef at Barzotto, a fast-casual pasta restaurant in San Francisco, specializing in handmade pasta. She shares her experience with creating a fast-casual restaurant and dealing with the changing aspects of the hospitality industry at conferences and online.
Currently, she serves as Head Chef of Research and Development for Off the Grid, a mobile food company dedicated to bringing people together through shared food experiences. She uses her extensive knowledge of cuisines, cookery, and systematization, to curate concepts, menus, and recipe development for the company. She also leans on her industry networking to build vendor relationships that support the local economy and small business owners through partnerships and sustainable sourcing.
Michelle is passionate about many causes, including sustainable seafood, local food systems, learning through travel, and that creating change starts with changing the narrative.
Roasted Corn Agnolotti, Wild Prawns, Chorizo
paired with
Ingredients
Yield: 4
Pasta Dough
- 11⁄2 cup 00 flour
- 1⁄2 tsp salt
- 1⁄2 Tbsp olive oil
- 2 whole eggs
Pasta Filling
- 1-2 Tbsp canola oil or canola/olive oil blend
- 3 cobs corn
- 3⁄4 cup ricotta
- 1⁄4 tsp salt (to taste)
- 1 tsp lemon zest (about 1 whole lemon)
Procedure
Make the dough:
Place the OO flour in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the salt and mix together. Whisk the two eggs together in a small bowl. Turn the mixer on at the lowest speed. Slowly drizzle in the olive oil, followed by the eggs. Add them very slowly until the dough barely comes together. Remove the paddle attachment and use your hands to form the dough into a ball. Knead the dough on your cutting board for about 3 minutes, or until the texture becomes smooth and no streaks of flour are present. Wrap in plastic wrap and allow it to rest at room temperature for about 20 minutes while you make the filling.
Roll the dough and form agnolotti:
Roll the pasta to the thinnest setting on your roller. Cut a strip about 8 inches long and 3 inches wide. Squeeze about a dime size amount (about 1 teaspoon) of filling into the middle of the dough, leaving about a finger’s width of space between each dollop of filling. Fold the dough strip over the filling so that the filling is hanging from the top side of the dough. Seal the dough above the filling by using a horizontal pressing motion with the blunt side of your hand or finger. Then using a pinching motion, squeeze the pieces of dough between the filling together to remove any air bubbles and create little spheres of dough (see video). Using a pasta (ravioli) cutter, cut the top strip of excess dough away. Then cut from the underside of dough up to the top edge of the dough so that the dough creates little folds, or pockets, encapsulating the filling. You have just made agnolotti!
Sauce
- 2 Tbsp canola oil or canola/olive oil blend
- 2 Tbsp shallots, minced (about 1 small shallot)
- 1 Tbsp garlic, minced (about 3 cloves)
- To taste salt
- 6 each (8 ounces) prawns, head off, peeled, deveined,
cut into 3⁄4 inch pieces - 1⁄4 cup Spanish chorizo, diced
- 2 ounces white wine
- 4 ounces chicken stock
- 2-4 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 8 (pitted) Cerignola olives (any green olive would work),
chopped - 1 Tbsp lemon juice (about 1⁄2 lemon) • 1 Tbsp chives, sliced
Cook the pasta & the sauce:
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Season with a large pinch of salt. While the water is coming to a boil, make your sauce: In a medium skillet over medium-high heat, add the oil and shallots. Sweat down about 30 seconds or until translucent. Add the garlic and a small pinch of salt. Cook to sweat, but no color. Season the prawns with salt and add to the pan along with the diced chorizo. Cook about 30 seconds, or just until the prawns begin to turn pink. Add the white wine to deglaze and let it cook away. Add the chicken stock to the sauce and let that come to a boil. Turn the heat off while you cook your pasta.
At this point the water should be boiling, so gently drop your agnolotti into the salted water and cook for 2 minutes. When done cooking, transfer the pasta to the pan with your sauce along with the remaining olive oil and Cerignola olives. Continue to cook everything together until the sauce glazes the pasta, and the pasta is the proper texture. Season with lemon juice, chives, and more salt if needed. Enjoy with a Kosta Browne Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir.
