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Saffron Tagliatelle

Equipment

  • 8 quart pot
  • 2 cup liquid measuring cup
  • Colander
  • Medium sauté pan, any material
  • Wooden spoon or big spoon
  • Mortar and pestle (see recipe notes above for alternatives)
  • tongs

Ingredients

  • 1/4 of a baguette or equivalent quantity of crusty white bread stale bread will be crispiest
  • 1 tsp olive oil divided
  • Salt
  • 3/4 cup frozen petite peas OR 6oz fresh snap peas trimmed and halved crossways on the bias
  • 16 oz tagliatelle
  • 2 medium-large shallots minced small (about 1/3 cup when minced)
  • 1/2 tsp unpacked saffron threads
  • 2/3 cup dry white wine
  • 2 tbsp unsalted butter
  • 1/2 cup cream
  • 2 cups pasta water reserved from cooking
  • Aleppo pepper for topping

Instructions

  • Bring 5-6 quarts of well-salted water to a boil and cook the tagliatelle until al dente. Reserve 2 cups of the pasta water before draining, then drain the pasta and set aside.
  • While the pasta cooks, prepare the bread crumbs. Use your hands to tear the baguette or bread into small pieces, around 1/4” in size, until you have around 1 1/2 cups worth of crumbs. Move the crumbs to a medium sauté pan, season lightly with salt, and drizzle with 1/2 tsp of the olive oil. Use a wooden spoon to toss the crumbs, and toast over medium heat for 5 minutes, or until the bread is crisp and golden in places. (If the bread is fresh, it will have more moisture, and this step will take a few minutes longer.) Transfer the bread crumbs to a dish and set aside. Keep the pan available to cook the peas later.
  • Return the empty pasta pot to the burner and reduce the heat to medium-low. Add the butter and the shallots, season with salt, and cook, stirring, about 4-5 minutes, or until the shallot is translucent.
  • While the shallots cook, prepare the peas. In the empty bread crumbs pan, add the remaining olive oil to cook the peas. For petite frozen peas: cook from frozen over medium-low heat for 3 minutes while stirring. When tender, transfer to a dish to avoid overcooking. For snap peas: Sauté the peas over medium heat until bright green and crisp-tender with a few lightly golden spots, about 5-6 minutes. Transfer to a dish and set aside.
  • In the pasta pot, add the wine to the shallots, bring to a simmer, and allow to reduce by half, around 3-4 minutes. While the wine reduces, crush the saffron threads into a fine powder using a mortar and pestle. Ladle around 1/4 cup of the reserved pasta water into the mortar with the saffron and stir with the pestle.
  • When the wine has reduced, add the saffron water from the mortar to the pot. Add 1 1/4 cups more of the reserved pasta water, pouring it into the mortar to get all of that saffron goodness. Stir in the cream and allow the sauce to simmer 8 minutes and reduce slightly. (The sauce will still look too thin, but it isn’t. See photo in recipe notes. It will thicken as it clings to the pasta and even after it is plated.)
  • Add the pasta to the pot and toss well (I like to use tongs for this.) Add more of the reserved pasta water to loosen if needed. Plate the pasta topped with the Aleppo pepper, peas, and breadcrumbs.

Notes

I’ve arranged the recipe steps so that the entire dish will be ready at the same time, which means the directions require some multi-tasking. Reading the recipe through once or twice before beginning will help! If you prefer not to multi-task, prepare the breadcrumbs first, followed by the peas. Then, cook the pasta and make the sauce.