We were taken out to the foothills of Mount Amiata last night for a meal and were introduced to ‘pici’ (pronounced ‘peachy’) It is a Tuscano eggless pasta. Known for its chewy texture and its thick spaghetti shape it is most often served in Tuscano with a tomato, garlic sauce. In Tuscano there is a giant garlic called ‘aglione della valdichiana’ or ‘aglio elefante’ as you can guess translates to elephant garlic.. And I found some! In most of the recipes I found they used canned tomatoes but being surrounded by all this fresh produce I am going to ad lib the sauce by just roasting the tomatoes and garlic with olive oil salt and pepper.. Can’t wait!!
Pici
250g farina 00. Flour
125g acqua. Water
2 tblsp oili. olive oil
sale salt
salsa sauce
pomodoro. tomato
aglio garlic
olio d’oliva. olive oil
sale e pepe. salt and pepper
Make a mountain of flour then add a well to the middle fill with the water and oil to mix ingredients to form the dough. After kneading for a few minutes rest for 10 under wrap, knead again and rest for 1-3 hours again under wrap. (spritz time) knead again then divide into four rolling each section out before slicing and rolling between fingers and benchtop into long skinny sausage shapes dust in semolina as you go so they don’t stick together. Throw pici into salted boiling water for about 3 minutes until it rises in pot.
For the sauce throw tomatoes and garlic salt and pepper and olive oil into a moderate oven for half hour or so. once the garlic is soft, mash it and return it to tomatoes. Throw the cooked Pici into this to serve.
Scarpetta or fare la scarpetta serve with bread so you can scarpetta, its using a piece of bread to mop up the sauce in appreciation of the dish. The phrase translates to doing the little shoe so you imagine a little shoe collecting all the left overs.
I have a nut butter addiction and have refrained from buying nutella for over 8 months! ( I keep track of my nutella withdrawal like a newly devoted non-smoker) Pistachio creme is absolute crack! The one on the left was my first purchase and a little too sweet but I struggled through it in 48 hours!!!!! The coop brand is definitely the win so far. All in all the nut butters are quite mild in flavour but my suitcase home will be full of crema al pistacchio for sure!
