RuvidaMente
Agnolotti are the classic first course of Piedmontese cuisine, also appreciated abroad.
This typical dish seems to have taken its name from a chef from Monferrato, in Piedmont, who was called Angelotu (Little Angel). His dish, Piat d'Angelot, would gradually become “agnolot”.
It is a pasta with filling, among the few that in Piedmont are made by hand, at home, of ancient tradition, which is characterized by richness and variety, from area to area and according to the availability of leftover meat, and flavor that requires meticulous and long preparation (a couple of hours or even more).
Once made, agnolotti can be eaten boiled in meat broth or dry and seasoned with simple melted butter, or tomato sauce, ragù, etc.
Anellini are a typical Sicilian ring-shaped pasta and are used almost exclusively to make baked pasta recipes.
Pasta, seasoned with the most refined sauces and the most delicious vegetables, has always been the star of Sicilian tables: there is no dinner or lunch that does not include a first course based on dried pasta.
Spaghetti, macaroni, ditalini or more usually anelletti (Sicilian rings) are regularly served as dry pasta or as baked pasta (for anelletti). In fact, in Sicily, the production of dried pasta has a very ancient tradition: it is believed that the first evidence of its production dates back a long way in time, to around 1150, the year in which the first production began, in Palermo.
The formats produced since ancient times on the island are many and have been "studied" to better match with different sauces, cheeses, vegetables, fish.
First of all, the Sicilian anelletti, used especially in flans, timballi and "pasta con il forno", baked pasta Palermo style that sees the magical, perfect union of the most typical ingredients of the south: fresh tomato sauce, basil, sliced mozzarella and slices of eggplant previously fried in olive oil.
Another typical Sicilian pasta is the ditalini, smooth and tubular pasta that is usually seasoned with fresh ricotta, sometimes mixed with fresh tomato sauce.
Anolini are a type of stuffed egg pasta originating from the province of Piacenza (in Piacenza dialect “anvëin”) and also widespread in the province of Parma.
There is a variant from the province of Cremona known as “marubini”.
They are a dish with ancient roots, already known and mentioned in 1500, passed down from generation to generation in families.
In the city of Piacenza tradition dictates that on Christmas Eve the family gathers to prepare the Christmas anolini.
The dish is rich and elaborate, like many dishes offered during important holidays, but the combination of ingredients makes it a refined dish.
The Piacenza variant requires excellent broth for cooking, preferably capon.
The base of the filling is a meat stew: in the Piacenza area beef is used, but in ancient times horse and pork were also used.
Once cooked, the meat should be finely minced together with the vegetables from the cooking base, and other ingredients should be added, including grated Grana Padano or Parmigiano Reggiano cheese.
Bavette, also called trenette or linguine, originated in Genoa and have the shape of flattened spaghetti.
They are the long Ligurian pasta par excellence: if Naples has linked its name to that of the most famous shape in the world, Spaghetti, Genoa can boast of their invention.
Created to accompany the traditional pesto, they go very well with all vegetable and fish-based sauces.
Bavette are among the long semolina pasta shapes that are best suited to enhancing the sauce.
Thanks to their flattened section and slightly convex shape, they are perfect for capturing the sauce and restoring all its variety of flavors.
Particularly appetizing even seasoned with a simple curl of butter, Bavette go superbly with Genoese pesto, rich in all the aroma of basil, one of the most important herbs in the Mediterranean gastronomic tradition.
Less common, but very suitable for more delicate sauces, are the Bavettine, which are in every way similar to bavette but smaller in size.