VALTELLINA’S PIZZOCCHERI

Pizzoccheri della Valtellina, a typical dish of Teglio in the province of Sondrio, to be eaten in winter, but also so tasty all year round.
Sondrio is about an hour’s drive from lake Como, the city, well-known for its wines (notably Sassella), is an agricultural and commercial centre and has cotton and silk textile industries. Sondrio is also a tourist base linked by cableways with nearby Alpine resorts, including Bormio and Santa Caterina Valfurva.

Pizzoccheri are a pasta format similar to tagliatelle, but shorter and wider, prepared with buckwheat flour mixed with 00 flour.

The peculiarity of the recipe is precisely the use of Saracens or buckwheat flour, a plant that is anything but similar to wheat. Originally from Northern Europe, where it was called Heidenkorn, the grain of pagans, from which then Saracens, not Christians.

INGREDIENTS:

500 g. Potatoes
400 g. Cabbage
150 g. Butter
200 g. Casera cheese
400 g. Buckwheat flour
100 g. Flour 00
280 g. Water
4 cloves of garlic
80 g. Grated Parmesan cheese
2 Table spoon of coarse salt

PREPARATION:

Put the 00 flour and the buckwheat flour in a bowl; pour 280 g of water, add a pinch of salt and start kneading.
Transfer the dough onto the floured surface and knead it briefly with your hands to make it homogeneous and compact ①.
Let it rest for 30 minutes, sprinkle a little 00 flour on the work surface, to ensure that the dough does not stick, then stretch the dough with a rolling pin until you obtain a sheet of 2 mm thick ②.

Cut the dough first into strips 4″ – 10 cm wide ③, then reduce each strip by cutting it diagonally into strips 3/8 – 1/2″ – 1 – 1.5 cm wide ④. Cut out the remaining scraps after rolling them out again with the rolling pin.

Peel the potatoes and cut them into half rounds; peel the cabbage, remove the core and divide the leaves in half, removing the stem, then cut them into strips 3/4″ – 2 cm wide.
Peel the garlic cloves, remove the germ, and cut them in half.
Cut the cheese casera into small squares, mixed with grated parmesan ⑤.

Put a large saucepan on the stove with 6 liters of water, salt it with 2 tablespoons of coarse salt, and when it boils, add the potatoes ⑥; cook them for 10′, add the cabbage leaves ⑦ and cook again for 3′ after they come to the boil again.
Plunge the pizzoccheri into the water where the cabbage and potatoes are cooked and cook them for 7-10 minutes ⑧.

Prendete l’aglio e fatelo appassire nel burro senza farlo imbiondire troppo e nel frattempo riducete a cubetti il formaggio casera ⑨.

Drain the pizzoccheri, potatoes and cabbage with a skimmer/slotted spoon, arrange them on a bowl or plate ⑩, and season them in layers with the diced Casera cheese and f grated parmesan ⑪, and the butter ⑫(with or without garlic depending on how you like it).

Mix and serve immediately.

If you have leftover pizzoccheri, the next day they will be just as good if heated in a pot with a lid, with a drop of oil and some flakes of cheese and a little pepper.