Emilia-Romagna is the home of rich egg pasta, with 1 egg used for every 100g (3½oz) of flour to create pasta sheets that are then cut and rolled into an endless variety of fresh pastas. Popular fresh egg pasta shapes include tubular garganelli (see video below); long pasta such as pappardelle, fettuccine and tagliolini; filled pastas like cappelletti, tortellini and ravioli; plus maltagliati, quadrucci and malfattini made from pasta offcuts (see FAQ below). While fresh egg pasta dough can be rolled and cut through a pasta machine, it’s also easy to roll and shape by hand using just a sharp knife, or ridged pasta wheel, gnocchi board and wooden rod, depending on the desired shape. For egg-free pasta – also shaped by hand – try my southern Italian pasta dough.
Serves 2
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Use large pieces of pasta trimmings to make maltagliati.
The name of this rustic fresh egg pasta literally means ‘badly cut’, referring to its irregular shape.
Simply cut the trimmings into irregular strips or shapes, cook as you would garganelli and serve with your favourite pasta sauce or add to soups like pasta e fagioli.
In Italy, even small scraps of pasta dough aren’t traditionally wasted. They’re cut into little squares (quadrucci) or chopped up finely to make malfattini – part of the pasta family called pastina (literally ‘little pasta’) that includes risoni, stelline and Sardinian fregola – to go into soups.
Fresh egg pastina cook in a couple of minutes in boiling water, but can simmer in soups for longer without falling apart.
