Pisarei e Fasò

Breadcrumb dumplings pressed with the thumb, in a borlotti and tomato sauce.

Pork. Not vegetarian — contains parmesan whose rennet the source does not name, pork.

Ingredients

• 150 g fine stale breadcrumbs
• 300 g plain flour
• 250 ml boiling water
• 300 g cooked borlotti beans
• 400 g passata
• 100 g pancetta, diced
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 60 g parmesan, grated
• 1.5 teaspoons salt

Method

1. POUR THE BOILING WATER OVER THE BREADCRUMBS and leave them 10 minutes to swell. The dough is built on bread, not on semolina — this is a dish for using up a stale loaf and the crumb is what gives the dumplings their slight chew.
2. Work in the flour and salt to a firm dough and knead 10 minutes. Rest it 30 minutes.
3. Roll ropes the thickness of a pencil and pinch off pieces the size of a hazelnut.
4. PRESS EACH PIECE AGAINST THE BOARD WITH YOUR THUMB, dragging slightly, so it curls into a small hollow shell. The hollow is not decoration: it carries the bean sauce, and a smooth ball lets it all run off.
5. Cook the pancetta and onion in the oil, add the passata and simmer 25 minutes, then the beans for 10 more.
6. Boil the pisarei in salted water. They are ready about a minute after they rise.
7. Turn them through the sauce in the pan with the parmesan.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Italy · All recipes