In addition to tagliatelle, use this rich pasta dough to make all the forms of filled pasta from Emilia-Romagna—anolini, cappellacci, tortelli, and tortellini—that I detail later in the chapter.
Recipe information
Yield
makes 1 1/2 pounds fresh tagliatelle, serving 6
Ingredients
RECOMMENDED EQUIPMENT
Preparation
Step 1
Put the flour in the bowl of the food processor, and process for a few seconds to aerate. Mix the whole eggs and egg yolks, olive oil, and ice water in a measuring cup with a spout.
Step 2
Start the machine running with the feed tube open. Pour in the liquids all at once (scrape in all the drippings), and process for 30 to 40 seconds, until a dough forms and gathers on the blade. If the dough does not gather on the blade or process easily, it is too wet or too dry. Feel the dough and add either more flour or more ice water, in small amounts. Process briefly, until the dough gathers on the blade, and clear the sides of the bowl.
Step 3
Turn the dough out on a lightly floured surface, and knead by hand briefly until it’s smooth, soft, and stretchy. Press it into a disk, wrap well in plastic wrap, and let it rest at room temperature for 1/2 hour. (You can refrigerate this dough for up to a day, or freeze it for a month or more. Defrost frozen dough in the refrigerator; return it to room temperature before rolling.)
Step 4
To make tagliatelle: Cut the dough in six equal pieces. Keeping it lightly floured, roll each piece through the machine at progressively thinner settings into sheets that are 5 inches wide (or as wide as your machine allows) and at least 20 inches long. Cut the long sheets in half crosswise, giving you twelve strips, each almost a foot long.
Step 5
One at a time, lightly flour each strip, and fold it over into thirds or quarters, creating a small rectangle with three or four layers of pasta. With a sharp knife, cut cleanly through the folded dough crosswise, at 1/2-inch intervals. Shake the cut pieces, opening them into long ribbons of tagliatelle. Dust them liberally with flour, gather into a loose nest, and set it on a floured towel or tray. Fold, cut, and unfurl all the strips this way, piling the tagliatelle in small floured nests. Leave uncovered to air-dry at room temperature, until ready to cook (or freeze the nests on the tray until solid, and pack in airtight ziplock bags).
Tagliatelle
Step 6
Tagliatelle—also known as “fettuccine” or “lasagnette”—are long flat ribbons of fresh pasta. And though you can find them all over Italy, nowhere are they made better than in Emilia-Romagna. And the cooks of Emilia-Romagna excel in marrying their golden tagliatelle with a brilliant variety of sauces that perfectly coat the strands and complement the rich flavor and tender texture of the pasta.
Step 7
In the following pages are recipes for fresh tagliatelle and three distinctive sauces to dress it. Th is pasta is so good, it will be a delight served with nothing more than sweet butter and freshly grated Grana Padano or Parmigiano-Reggiano. But I hope you’ll try all of the sauces I’ve brought you from Emilia-Romagna. If you’re in a hurry, try the uncooked walnut pesto with ricotta (page 139), or the luscious fresh Romagnola Tomato Sauce (page 140), which takes about half an hour to prepare. For a more complex dish, make the velvety long-cooked “white” ragù on page 137. And if you want to experience the quintessential dish of tagliatelle as it is made in the region, prepare the authentic Ragù alla Bolognese Ricetta Tradizionale (page 382).
