Recipes
PIZZOCCHERI
Pizzoccheri
(say: Pete's-oh-CARE-ee)
I wanted make Pizzocheri alla Valtellinesi however, I ran into a glitch. I cannot find Pizzoccheri pasta in San Diego... Even Little Italy let me down. Why the obsession with a specific pasta you ask? Well, most pastas are a simple preparation of semolina flour and are designed, not as a flavor component to a dish, but more of a vehicle to get the sauce into your mouth, thus the different shaped for different types of sauces. Pizzoccheri is a little different, it is a buckwheat noodle from the Italian alps in Lombardi. Being made with buckwheat, it has a distinctive earthy flavor that is part of the overall dish. So since my craving was being denied satiation, I started digging on the net for pasta recipes. 3 bags of buckwheat flour and much cursing in the kitchen later, I have arrived at my own recipe. Granted, this is designed for hand rolling since I don't own a pasta machine or the attachment to my Kitchen Aid. For those out there who decorate cakes, this dough is like working with stiff fondant, and due to the low gluten content of the buckwheat, it rips fairly easily once you have it thin enough. When you buy extruded pizzoccheri in the store, the noodles are long, I cut mine short to make handling a little easier. This seems like it makes a lot, but I always seem to end up with scrap, and it's almost impossible to re-roll, so it end up in the garbage or... since the gluten is low, I will even let my dog have some as a treat.
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