A while back, I made a liver and onions picatta dish, and it got me craving more calves liver. Which is hilarious because I love calves liver already. When I made that picatta dish, I went with lighter flavors, using a lot of acid, capers, and caramelized onions for a more dainty feel/contrast. So I figured, why not do a take 2 on that liver and onion dish, but with pasta instead of noodles, and a richer bacon-based sauce? With the weather finally getting colder, I wanted to make a dish that is more comforting and filling. I remember when I did research on classic liver pairings, bacon came up as an option. And that works for me, because bacon makes everything better. Liver, especially how we’re cooking it in this recipe, is meaty, but creamy. Bacon adds that saltiness and smokiness that makes liver taste even less like offal, which is a win for everyone, even if they liked liver to begin with. So I wound up making a bacon-brown butter sauce to toss my homemade pasta noodles in, and served that with a combination of roasted onions, pickled onions, and the calves liver pieces. I revamped the proportions of each component too, serving smaller pieces of the liver, almost like large pieces of bacon or prosciutto, layered with the roasted onion petals, and layered some pickled onion slivers and nasturtiums on top for color, a little height, and brightness. The onions in this case add sweetness, toastiness, and acidity, to help balance the richness and iron-y taste of the liver. It almost is like having a separate liver and onion dish with a pasta dish underneath it, but all of the components do come together to make a dish perfect for a cold day when you want a comforting bowl/plateful of noodles.

For the calves liver:
1 calves liver
1 cup buttermilk
1 tbsp shio koji
2 tbsp salt
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 tbps unsalted butter

Slice the calves into into 1/4-inch by 2-inch pieces, removing any veiny or tougher bits – you want the liver bits that we are using to be on the softer side. Soak the liver in the buttermilk, mixed with shio koji, and salt, for at least 20 minutes, covered, in the refrigerator.

Afterwards, pat the liver dry and dust in the all-purpose flour right before searing the pieces off in a pan lined with butter. You want to sear each side for no more than 2 minutes.

Keep the cooked liver pieces on a roasting rack for now.

For the pasta dough:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 egg
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp water
a pinch of salt, plus more for boiling

In a bowl, mix everything together into a smooth dough. Allow the dough to rest for 5-10 minutes before rolling out the dough (if using a pasta roller, I rolled this to the second thinnest setting, which was roughly the thinness of 2 stacked poker cards) and cutting it into 1/8-inch wide noodles. Bring a pot with heavily salted water to a boil. Boil the noodles in the salted water for 90 seconds before transferring to the pan with the sauce, tossing the noodles through the sauce right before serving.

For the pickled onions:
1oz white onion, peeled and shaved thinly
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp granulated sugar
2 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tbsp water

In a bowl, mix together the onion with salt and sugar. In a pot, bring the rice vinegar and water to a simmer. Pour the liquid over the onions, and allow everything to sit until the salt and sugar dissolve into the pickling liquid.

For the bacon-brown butter sauce:
3 tbsp unsalted butter
2 strips bacon, cubed
2oz white onion, peeled and cut into petals
a pinch of salt
a pinch of black pepper
2 tbsp cold water

In a pan, cook the butter, bacon, onion, salt, and pepper on medium heat until the butter begins to brown and the bacon begins to crisp up. Remove the bacon and onions for now, and then add in the cold water, stirring the butter off heat until a creamy sauce forms. Toss the cooked pasta into the sauce, and add back in the bacon right before plating.

For garnish:
Nasturtium leaves

Start by laying down the pasta on the plate. Then garnish the top of the pasta with the liver pieces, onion petals, pickled onions, and nasturtium leaves to finish.