Maccheroni a descita
This pasta shape is classed as another
interpretation of cavatelli, as the pasta is also
hollowed out. Likewise, it comes from Puglia
and is also rolled into a rope before being
cut and dragged across a surface using your
ngers, leaving little nger imprints to catch
your sauce. It’s another charming example
of the talents of Italian peasants and their
cleverness for creating new shapes. In my
research, I’ve also seen it called strascinati
and raschiatelli, but considering I struggle
to pronounce either I’m going to stick with
maccheroni a descita. Sfoglina Julia, my
pasta teacher, told me that you can make
this pasta in a number of lengths, just using
fewer or more ngers when pressing down.
I also like that this pasta shape is unique to
your ngerprint. I roll my rope to just under
1 cm thick and then cut the lengths to two
ngers wide as it can get quite spongy if
kept too big.
Equipment: n/a
Level: easy
74
Make your desired quantity of semolina
dough following the recipe on page 42.
• Cut o a small chunk of dough,
approximately 5 cm x 2 cm, and roll it
into a rope, about 1 cm thick. Keep the
rest of the dough covered with a tea towel
to stop it drying out.
• Cut the rope into roughly 3 cm lengths,
or use the width of two ngers as a guide
and cut accordingly.
• Using your index and middle ngers, press
into your dough, then drag it towards you
to allow the dough to wrap around and
hollow out. If your dough pieces are longer,
you can use all three ngers – index, middle
and ring.
• Do as the nonne do and ick away
the pasta.
• Repeat. After you’ve got the hang of it,
feel free to use both hands to double
your speed.