Tuscan Pici Pasta
Our first Foodie Trip to Italy was in the fall of 2010, and I have been preparing this pasta and teaching others how to make it ever since. Tuscany’s famous Pici pasta is available on most menus in the region that feature the local cuisine and it has always been one of my favorites. Pici is simple to make, requires common kitchen ingredients and can be made without any fancy culinary tools. This recipe makes a little over 1 pound of dough.
The first step is to place the flour on a clean working counter and make a well in the center. Add the eggs to the center of the well and beat them up gently with a fork. Add the salt, olive oil and warm water and gradually mix the flour into the egg mixture, forming a smooth-soft dough (adding additional water if necessary to make the dough soft).
Knead the dough for 10 minutes and wrap it tightly with plastic wrap and rest for 30 minutes.
After the dough has rested, use a rolling pin to roll it out to a rectangle about 12-inches long with a thickness of 1/4-inch. Drizzle a little olive oil on top of the pasta and, using your palm, spread the oil over the entire top surface (this will make it easier to roll in step 7). Using a knife, rolling cutter or bench knife, cut the dough into strips 12-inch long by 3/8-inch wide.
Take a strip of pasta, and place it on a wide, empty counter in front of you. Using both hands, palms down, begin rolling the pasta strips into thick-long “spaghetti-like” strands. As you roll, back and forth, move your hands apart to help stretch the dough. The final strands should be quite long, with a final thickness of between 1/8-inch and 3/16-inch. They should be a little irregular in shape, which proves they are handmade, not extruded from a machine.
As each strand is completed, roll the pasta in some semolina flour (or cornmeal) to prevent it from sticking to other strands. Lay out on a towel-lined baking sheet, being careful not to over crowd them.
TOOL TIP:
A Bench Knife (or Bench Scraper) is one of my favorite kitchen tools and makes working with doughs so much easier. In this recipe, I use the bench knife to cut the Pici dough into it’s initial thin strips prior to rolling it. I also use it to scrape the floured work surface after the pasta is done…it makes cleanup much easier.
This French-Tapered Rolling Pin makes the task of rolling out dough a breeze. It is my go-to rolling pin for my Pici pasta dough, pie crusts, crushing nuts…it gets plenty of use in my kitchen.
To cook the pasta, boil a large pot of salted water and add the pici. Stir at once to separate the strands and to get them off the bottom of the pot and cook for about 5 minutes, until they are al dente.
The most popular way to serve Pici is with a Wild Boar Sugo. Sugo is similar to a Bolognese sauce, but uses a rich stock in place of some of the tomato sauce. As Wild Boar can be difficult to procure in many parts of the country, coarsely ground pork and/or beef can be substituted in it’s place. My recipe for Wild Boar Sugo can be found in my post Wild Boar Lasagna…click here to view it.
