1 March, 2021

Taglierini-Tagliatelle

Comments : 1 Posted in : Pasta on March 1, 2021 by : CalabreseDaughter

Although not exclusively Calabrese, Tagliatelle – or Taglierini as we called them, are one of the many homemade pastas my mother made and still makes.  She would typically make them on a Sunday morning…sometimes enlisting my sister and I to help.  She rolled the dough by hand and then cut it into strips with a knife; although to make life easier you could use a pasta machine.  I make them by hand too, the way my mother taught me.  I recommend dressing the Taglierini with the savory, meat-flavored Tomato Sauce with Pork Ribs. (see previous post for recipe).

Ingredients (for two people)

• 2 eggs (room temperature)
• *200 grams (7 ounces) flour
• ~ 1/2 teaspoon olive oil
• pinch of salt

* you can either use white flour (Italian “00” or the equivalent) or a 3 to 1 ratio of white flour to semolina

Kneading the dough: Take the flour and pinch of salt and pour it onto a flat surface and make a well in the middle. Add eggs and olive oil. Whisk the eggs and oil, all the while bringing flour in from the outer perimeter.  Once all the flour is in, start kneading the dough with your hands.  Have extra flour available to sprinkle on the surface so that the dough doesn’t stick.  This will take about 10 minutes.  You will know that you’re finished when it is smooth on the outside.  The dough shouldn’t be too hard, otherwise it will dry out too quickly as you are rolling it out.  If it seems too hard, splash in a bit of warm water to make it softer as you are kneading it.  It shouldn’t be too soft (sticky) either.  It takes practice to get it just right…I will never be as good at it as my mother and I’m still learning.  

Rolling the dough: Start rolling from the top outer perimeter, then turn the dough 90⁰ and roll this top and continue.  Continue rotating and rolling until you’ve got an even thickness.  Keep rolling from the center to the outer edges.  Eventually, you can roll the dough around your rolling pin and continue rolling until you’ve got a thin layer.  If it starts to tear while you are rolling it, it’s probably thin enough. The more you do this, the more you will get a feel for the correct thickness, but just think of the times you’ve eaten tagliatelle, so you know what to strive for.

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Cutting the dough: Now that your dough is at the desired thickness, you take the sheet and fold it over, then fold it over again and possibly again until you’ve got a long strip which is about two inches wide.  Use a very sharp knife to cut the dough the desired width down the length of the strip, making cuts until the end.  Open the cuts and spread them out on the surface.

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Cooking the Taglierini: Fill the pasta pot with water and add salt to taste.  Bring the water to a boil and cook for 3 to 5 minutes, until they float to the surface.  Cook them “al dente”.  Once cooked, drain the Taglierini and pour them into the serving dish. (see the Tomato Sauce with Pork Ribs recipe for dressing cooked pasta).

Freezing the Taglierini: If you don’t want to cook the Taglierini they can be frozen.  I make little taglierini nests on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  Place the cookie sheets in the freezer for about an hour until they are frozen.  Remove the nests from the cookie sheet and place in freezer bags (I put one serving portion per bag).  When you are ready to use them, do not thaw them out, just place them directly out of the freezer bag into the boiling water as I described above.