Trofie

Small spindles rolled under one palm, with a twist running the length.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 400 g plain flour
• 200 ml warm water
• 1.5 teaspoons salt
• pesto genovese, to dress
• 200 g potatoes and 150 g green beans, to serve

Method

1. Make a firm dough with the flour, water and salt, knead 12 minutes, and rest it an hour under a damp cloth.
2. Pinch off pieces the size of a chickpea.
3. ROLL EACH PIECE UNDER ONE PALM, DIAGONALLY ACROSS THE BOARD, pressing and dragging at the same time. It stretches into a short spindle with a spiral twist along it and a point at each end.
4. One palm against the board, not two palms together — that is strozzapreti, and it gives a thicker, hollower rope. These are small and dense.
5. The twist is not decoration: it doubles the surface and it is why trofie hold pesto, which is a sauce that clings to nothing smooth.
6. BOIL THE POTATOES AND GREEN BEANS IN THE SAME WATER as the pasta — potato chunks first for 8 minutes, beans for 5, then the trofie for 8 to 10. One pot, and the starch from all three helps the pesto bind.
7. Loosen the pesto in a warmed bowl with a ladle of that water and bring the drained pasta to it, never the pesto to the pan.

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