Pasta Modern (30 page)

{
Mezzi maniche dolci
}

SERVES
4
to
6
|
REGION:
Abruzzo

All the flavor of cannoli, but with a pasta shell instead!
Mezzi maniche
, little pasta tubes, are boiled until al dente, then fried to create a crunchy, tasty container for the creamy sweet ricotta filling. They are a perfect pop-in-your-mouth, one-bite size. I first tasted this amazing dessert in Abruzzo while having dinner with the wonderful Peduzzi family, makers of Rustichella d’Abruzzo pasta.

Try this recipe once and, as it has for me, it’ll become one of your go-to desserts. There are lots of ways to vary it. One of my favorite variations is to fill the fried pasta with mascarpone cheese sweetened with sugar and dust it with instant coffee granules and cocoa powder, for a riff on tiramisu.

1 cup (250 g) ricotta

2 tablespoons sugar, plus extra for rolling

1 tablespoon finely chopped dark chocolate, preferably Perugina brand, or mini chocolate chips

1 tablespoon minced candied orange peel

Pinch ground cinnamon

4 ounces (115 g)
mezzi maniche, mezzi rigatoni
, or other short tube pasta

Salt

Vegetable oil

Optional garnishes: chopped pistachios, chopped candied cherries or orange peel, cocoa powder, or chopped chocolate

In a bowl, using a fork, mix the ricotta, sugar, chocolate, candied peel, and cinnamon until well combined. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Boil the pasta in salted water until it is very tender, about 1 minute longer than al dente. Drain the pasta well.

Meanwhile, in a very small saucepan, heat about 1 inch (2.5 cm) of oil until very hot, but not smoking. Add half of the pasta and fry until it is golden and crisp, about 2 minutes. Remove it with a slotted spoon and drain it on a paper towel. Repeat with the remaining pasta.

When the pasta has cooled to room temperature, roll it in sugar, then fill each tube with the ricotta mixture, either using an espresso spoon or by piping it in with a pastry bag. Garnish, if you like, with the suggested toppings. Serve at room temperature.

{
Torta di tagliatelle
}

SERVES
6
|
REGION:
Lombardy, especially the province of Mantua

Fresh thin egg noodles tossed with sugar, almonds, and butter and baked in a free-form pile until crisp—this pasta dessert is one of the most famous and popular sweets of Mantua.

Some Italians bake the pasta in a pie crust, but I prefer to follow the advice of locals from Mantua, who believe that a crust just makes for extra work and hides the beauty of this unusual, pretty dessert. You must use fresh, not dried, pasta for this recipe.

12 tablespoons (170 g) butter

2 cups (320 g) blanched whole almonds

1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar

12 ounces (340 g) fresh egg tagliatelle or other very thin egg noodles

¼ cup (60 ml) almond liqueur, like Disaronno amaretto

Confectioners’ sugar

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Line a flat baking sheet with parchment paper and butter it.

In a food processor, grind the almonds and granulated sugar until the mixture resembles coarse sand, then put it into a large bowl with the uncooked tagliatelle. Using your hands, gently toss to coat the pasta with the sugar mixture.

Loosely scatter about one third of the tagliatelle onto the prepared pan in a roughly 12-inch (30.5-cm) round. Scatter the top with 4 tablespoons of the butter, thinly sliced. Repeat for another two layers. Sprinkle the top with the liqueur.

Bake for about 40 minutes, until golden. Serve at room temperature, generously dusted with confectioners’ sugar.

{
Calcionetti teramani
}

MAKES
about
4
dozen
|
REGION:
Abruzzo, Molise, and Campania

Chickpeas for dessert? Yes, you read that right. These uniquely satisfying dessert ravioli, served like cookies, are filled with pureed chickpeas, which create a lovely velvety canvas for the rich chocolate, espresso, and rum. This classic dessert of Abruzzo and southern Italy is traditionally fried, but nowadays for a lighter treat home cooks often bake them instead. They are delicious both ways!

FOR THE FILLING:

1 ½ cups (245 g) mashed cooked chickpeas

2 ounces (60 g) finely chopped dark chocolate, preferably Perugina brand

¼ cup (30 g) finely ground blanched almonds

3 tablespoons rum

3 tablespoons freshly brewed strong coffee or espresso

3 tablespoons honey

2 heaping tablespoons minced candied citron or lemon peel

Zest of ½ lemon

1 tablespoon sugar, plus extra for garnish

Pinch ground cinnamon

Make the filling
:
In a bowl, mix all the ingredients until smooth and well combined, then adjust the flavors to taste, adding more of whatever you like. Set aside.

FOR THE DOUGH:

About 3 ½ cups (445 g) all-purpose or “0” flour

1 tablespoon sugar

½ cup (120 ml) dry white wine

Olive oil

1 large egg yolk

Vegetable oil for frying, or 1 egg white for baking

Make the dough
:
Sift the flour and sugar onto a clean work surface and make a well in the center. Put the wine, 3 tablespoons oil, and the yolk into the well and slowly incorporate the flour. Add about ¼ cup (60 ml) warm water a little at a time, until a dough forms. Knead the dough until it is very smooth. Form it into a ball, wrap it in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 1 hour.

To assemble
:
Using about a quarter of the dough at a time so it doesn’t dry out and keeping the rest covered, roll the dough into sheets about 1/16-inch (2-mm) thick. Using a cookie cutter, cut out 3 ½-inch (9-cm) circles of dough. Drop a heaping tablespoonful of the filling in the center of each circle, fold the circles over to create half moons, and pinch the edges closed. Repeat until you’ve used up all the dough and filling.

In a large, deep pan, heat 3 tablespoons oil over medium-high heat. Add the ravioli and fry, turning them once, until they are just lightly golden on both sides, about 2 minutes. Drain them on paper towels. Alternatively, bake the ravioli by brushing the tops with egg white, placing them on parchment-lined baking sheets, and baking in a 375°F (190°C) oven for about 25 minutes, until they are lightly golden.

Eat the ravioli warm or at room temperature, topped with sugar and a pinch of cinnamon.

Pasta Glossary:

THE LONG & THE SHORT OF IT

MENO SIAMO A TAVOLA, E PIÚ SI MANGIA.

THE LESS TIME WE SPEND AT THE TABLE, THE
MORE
WE EAT.

We’ve been talking about all sorts of things to put on your pasta … now, let’s talk about the pasta itself. It would take a dozen books to describe the thousands of dried-pasta shapes, then another dozen volumes to even scratch the surface of all the homemade pasta found throughout Italy.

Since I have only this one book, I decided to make it more manageable—I cut the list down to the number of different pasta types you could conceivably try in one adventurous year. In this section, you’ll find a photo glossary covering fifty-two unusual dried-pasta shapes—enough to try one new shape a week for a year!

Italian pasta comes in all sorts of shapes, many with adorable, evocative names: elbows, butterflies, bow ties, worms, snails, ribbons, nests, ears, and wagon wheels. And pasta comes in all sizes, from the teeny tiny
pastina
to the gigantic
boccolottoni
.

Regional differences in pasta are both glorious and maddening. Sometimes the very same shape can have two dozen different names, depending on what province or town you find it in. That’s why I opted for a visual guide. You may find shapes under several different names … but do find them!

SHORT

1 |
ANELLINI
(little rings)
:
great for oven-baked pasta dishes, as they hold together nicely.

2 |
BUSA
(knitting needles)
:
a specialty of Sardinia, made by rolling the dough around a wooden needle that gives it its name. There are many variations throughout Italy of this type of pasta. In Sicily, a slightly larger version is
busiati;
in Abruzzo it’s
pasta al ceppo;
and in other regions it’s
treccine
(braids).

3 |
CALAMARATA
or
CALAMARI
(squid)
:
short, wide ring pasta. Wonderfully toothsome.

4 |
CAMPANELLE
(little bells)

5 |
CANNOLICCHI
(little tubes)
:
adorable thin tubes of curled pasta. Often eaten in southern Italy with bean sauces, as in
pasta e fagioli
.

6 |
CASARECCE
(handmade)
:
made by rolling the dough around a thin rod. A specialty of Sicily, this pasta is reminiscent of
busa, busiati
, and
fusilli al ferretto
.

7 |
CAVATAPPI
(corkscrews)
:
also called
torchietti
(little torches) or even
gigli
(lilies), depending on the maker.

8 |
CAVATELLI
(carved out)
:
a specialty of Puglia.