Pisarei e faso - The Italian love of pasta and bread

Please tell me. Is there anything better than pasta and bread? Exactly, no there isn’t, so let’s combine the pair and make the most exquisite dish that has strong embedded roots from Emilia Romagna, while also echoing cucina povera vibes from the south of Italy. I class this dish as cucina povera (peasant style cookery that’s made with love) as it embraces simple, quality ingredients while adding maximum flavour and comfort. With us all having to watch out home expenditure and weekly shopping budget, this dish will easily become a weekly staple, that uses up stale bread with absolute ease. You can also make the pasta, then freeze it on lined trays (un-cooked) then pop the frozen pasta into bags, making quick cooking at every opportunity. Frozen pasta should always be cooked from frozen and never thawed.

Listen to this, I love a rambling whimsical tale and often retell these stories when demonstrating at various food festivals. There is an old wife’s tail that goes along with this pasta shape. Due to the small, rounded shape of dough being used, the thumb is used to apply pressure to small nuggets of dough forming an indent, hence possibly leaving a though outer skin on the thumb if they were made often enough. Ah, the beauty of a callus on the thumb was seen in great admiration. If a well-used thumb was seen on a young lady, then it was said she would make a perfect wife and mother, a simply fairy-tale fable I’m sure, however I kind of like it and do believe it. Foggia where my dad was from and Campobasso where my mamma is from, have small provinces that house small villages with tight gossipy communities. Lots have changed in Italy, however the gossip and chatter amongst villagers will forever be present.

Pisarei pastas are still made by grandmothers, mothers, daughters and are from the province of ‘Piacenza’ in the region of Emilia Romagna. The art of making pasta is still very much loved in Italy and especially within the family home and I simply adore the idea of the fairy-tale too, a sense of Romance maybe. Why not have a go at this frugal dish, you may even develop a slight hardening on the side of your thumb! Buona fortuna.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Italian

Keyword Breadcrumb Gnocchi with Beans, gnocchi recipe, pasta and beans recipe, Pisarei e faso

Prep Time 1

Cook Time 30

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

Pasta

400 g Flour
150 g Stale white breadcrumbs
350-380 ml Warm water

Sauce

1 Medium onion peeled, finely chopped
1 tbsp Olive oil
50 g Butter, unsalted
30 g Strutto or lard
2 Garlic cloves peeled, crushed
600 g Tomato passata
100 ml Water
1 tbsp Tomato puree
400 g Tinned borlotti beans drained
Salt and pepper to season
Small bunch parsley chopped
10 Basil leaves torn

Instructions

Into a bowl tumble in the breadcrumbs and flour, stir.
Make a well in the centre and slowly add the water.
Form the mixture into a ball of dough.
Need for 4 minutes on a lightly floured surface until elastic and smooth. Cover and allow to rest for 30 minutes.
Once rested, cut the dough into four portions. Roll each quarter out into thin sausages. Using a knife cut small pieces of dough. Using your thumb push each small piece of dough and make a concave dent. The pasta should not be too thick and should be the size of a swollen borlotti bean.
Continue making the pasta and place each dumpling onto a clean tea-towel to dry a little whilst you make the sauce.
Into a shallow saucepan add the butter, olive oil and onion. Fry off the onion for two minutes over a low heat until softened.
Add the strutto or lard, garlic and parsley. Stir well.
Pour in the passata along with the water, tomato puree and drained borlotti beans. Stir and season with salt and pepper. Cook slowly for 30 minutes.
Cook the pisarei (pasta dumplings) in salted water until aldente. Drain reserving a small ladle of the starchy pasta water.
Add the pasta and water to the sauce and stir gently. Add the basil leaves.
Serve in bowls with some grated parmesan.

Notes

Carmela’s tip: You could soak beans the day before if you prefer and cook them for much longer. I cheat by using canned as they take a lot of the initial prep out of cooking. Borlotti beans can be replaced with cannellini beans, butter beans or chickpeas. Also feel free to swap the lard for butter.

Buon appetito Carmela x