How to Make Pizzoccheri

The Vegeterranean's Buckwheat Pasta from Northern Italy

Jun 4, 2008 Rebecca Ford

This gourmet vegetarian recipe from the Vegeterranean cookbook, shows you how to make pizzoccheri - a Northern Italian buckwheat pasta,

Pizzoccheri is a speciality dish of Valtellina in the Italian Alps. It's pasta that is partly made with buckwheat flour, which gives it a very unusual texture. This recipe appears (with permission) from The Vegeterranean (pub Simon and Schuster, £25), by Malu Simoes and Alberto Musacchio, a new gourmet vegetarian Italian cookbook.

Pizzoccheri - Recipe

Ingredients Serves 8

For the dough

  • 400 g (14 oz) Grano Duro (durum wheat) flour, plus more for dusting
  • 200g (7 oz) buckwheat flour
  • 4 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 2 tablespoons Grappa liquor
  • 6 tablespoons beer
  • Pinch of salt

For the Sauce

  • 3 garlic cloves, gently smashed
  • 3 sage leaves
  • 170g (6 oz) butter
  • 2 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 cm (1/2 in) cubes
  • 300 g (11 oz) Savoy cabbage, spinach, or black cabbage, roughly julienned
  • 200 g (7 oz) mildly aged cheese like Fontina or Gouda, cut into small cubes
  • 100 g (3 1/2 oz) grated Parmesan
  • White pepper

Method

To make the dough

  1. Combine both flours on a flat surface and make a well in the centre. Add the remaining ingredients to the well and work with your fingers until a dough forms.
  2. Gather into a ball and knead well for 8 minutes. Wrap in plastic film and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
  3. Then roll out to number 6 through a pasta mill into a long strip, or by hand into a large wafer-thin disc. Dry, uncovered, for 10 minutes.
  4. If rolling out through a pasta mill, halve vertically and horizontally, flour the surface and stack the quarters. Slice into 1 cm (1/2 in) strips.
  5. If rolling out by hand, dust the surface with Grano Duro flour and roll the dough over a rolling pin from the bottom up until all the dough is wrapped around the pin. Take a sharp knife and cut lengthwise across the top of the pin in a straight line and let the dough fall away. Remove the pin and cut again lengthwise across the middle.
  6. Dust the surface of one stack with flour and place the two stacks on top of each other. Cut crosswise into 1 cm (1/2 in) strips. Gently toss pieces with more flour and set aside on a floured tray.

To make the sauce

  1. Heat the garlic and sage with the butter in a small sauté pan. When the garlic begins to colour, press the cloves down with the back of a spoon to extract the juices, then discard the cloves. Set aside the butter with sage.
  2. Cook the potatoes and greens in 2 litres (3 1/2 pints) of lightly salted simmering water for 10 minutes.
  3. Slide the pasta from the tray and cook for an additional 5 minutes (the pasta should be slightly undercooked). Drain water from the pasta and vegetables.
  4. Spread half of the pasta mixture and half of the sage butter sauce over the bottom of a 23 x 33 cm (9 x 13 in) casserole dish. Top with half of the cubed cheese and half the grated Parmesan. Repeat the procedure.
  5. Sprinkle with the remaining Parmesan and bake at Gas Mark 4/180C/350F for 10 to 15 minutes. Top with a sprinkle of freshly ground white pepper and serve in the casserole dish.

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The copyright of the article How to Make Pizzoccheri in Italian Cuisine is owned by Rebecca Ford. Permission to republish How to Make Pizzoccheri in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.