ciciones

Pasta corta

ingredients: Durum- wheat flour, saffron, and water. how made: The flour is sifted and kneaded with water in which saffron has been dissolved. The dough is worked long and energetically until it is firm and smooth, then left to rest. Pieces of dough are pinched off and rolled between hands into sticks as thick as a pencil, which are cut into chickpea- sized pieces. There is also a factory- made version. Both are boiled in abundant salted water. also known as: Pizzottis and ciuccionis; around Nuoro, cravaos; in the Logudoro, macarones coidos; and around Sassari, cigiones and zizzones. how served: As pastasciutta, with various local sauces, but usually with meat sauce and local pecorino. where found: Sardinia, typical of Sassari. remarks: The coloring of pasta with saffron is very old in Sardinia. That practice meant that poor flour- and- water pastas took on a beautiful golden hue that made them look as though they were prepared with eggs. The cultivation of the native crocus is widespread in the Campidano area, especially around the towns of San Gavino Monreale and Turri. The flowers used to grow wild among the limestone rocks. A crocus is depicted on the pediment carved at the entrance to the ancient Roman tomb of Attila Pompilia, today known as the Grotta della Vipera, near Cagliari. The presence of saffron on the island was reported by Martin Carrillo, sent to Sardinia in 1610 by Philip III of Spain to draft a report on the living conditions of the population oppressed by bad administrators. On a visit to Mamojada in 1612, he was offered a Pantagruelian banquet for which was needed, among other items, 50 libbre of pepper, cloves, cinnamon, and saffron. Saffron is still used in many traditional Sardinian dishes, and an old adage of the Barbagia area says, Only donkeys dont eat saffron. Around Sassari, ciciones are prepared for the dinner of the dead (All Souls Day, November 2): tradition has it that loved ones return during the night to eat the food they enjoyed in life, which is why the tables are set all night long.

57. ciriole
Pasta lunga

ingredients: For homemade, soft- wheat flour, sometimes mixed with durumwheat flour, and water. For factory made, durum- wheat flour and water.
ciriole 79

how made: The flour or flours are sifted onto a wooden board and kneaded long and vigorously with water until the dough is firm and smooth. The dough is left to rest, then rolled out with a rolling pin into a sheet about 1/8 inch (3 mm) thick. The sheet is rolled up into a cylinder and cut crosswise into strips about 1/8 inch (3 mm) wide. The strips are rolled with hands on a wooden board to make long, irregular spaghettoni. The factory- made version is a long, flattish pasta, similar to trenette (see entry). Both types are boiled in abundant salted water. also known as: In the Val di Chiana and around Siena, ceriole; in Sangemini in Umbria, picchiarelli. how served: As pastasciutta, with traditional local sauces. The picchiarelli of Sangemini are served with a typical horse meat rag. where found: Tuscany and Umbria, especially the province of Terni. remarks: Ciriole is an old name for a small, thin white eel, from which it is easy to imagine the association with the form and color of this pasta. The origin of the term is, again for similarity of shape, the Latin cereolus and then ciriolus, diminutives of cereus, meaning candle. The term ciriole is used in the countryside on the border of Umbria and Tuscany, and it is also at home in the areas of the Crete

Senesi, the Casentino, and the Maremma. In Umbria, ciriole are the same as stringozzi (see entry). In Sangemini, they are called picchiatelli because of the custom of patting (picchiettare) the dough with fingers. In Terni, in addition to the traditional local sauces, ciriole are served with a sauce of pioppo57 mushrooms.

58. cjalsons
Pasta ripiena

ingredients: Wheat flour, sometimes boiled potatoes, and eggs. The fillings vary from place to place. how made: The flour is sifted onto a wooden board and kneaded long and vigorously with eggs, and sometimes also with riced boiled potatoes, until a firm,
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smooth dough forms. The dough is left to rest, then rolled out into a sheet. Disks of various sizes are cut with a toothed pasta cutter. The disks are topped with filling, and then folded and sealed in a half- moon. Or a second disk is placed on top and the edges are sealed to form a round raviolo. In the town of Timau, the dough is shaped into a cylinder and then cut into round slices that are flattened into disks beneath the bottom of a glass. The filling is placed on the disk, and the cjalson is completed by placing a second disk on top. The ravioli are boiled in abundant salted water. also known as: Agnolotti, cialcions, cjarsons, cialzons, and ciargnei. how served: As pastasciutta, traditionally with melted butter, smoked ricotta, and local aged cheese. where found: FriuliVenezia Giulia, especially in the Carnia area. remarks: The name means literally pants, like calzoni. These ancient and special ravioli are redolent of the woods and wild herbs of Carnia, and have as many spellings as they have fillings. The pasta dough can vary, too: made with flour and potatoes, or with potatoes only. In the past, the pasta sheet for this ritual dish must have been extremely thin: the women of the Degano valley were known to believe that the thinner the pasta was rolled, the higher the precious hemp would grow the next year. Traditionally, these ravioli are eaten on Christmas Eve, before madijnis, the religious function of December 24. In some areas, as in the Canale dIncarojo, north of Tolmezzo, they are eaten also on the last Thursday in January. But the eating of cjalsons is not limited to these days, especially in the mountains of Carnia, where they have always been offered to guests on feast days, the filling a mix of sweet and savory raisins, candied citron, spinach, smoked ricotta. The different fillings indicate where the cjalsons were made. For example, potato is favored for the cjalsons de planure (di pianura, lowlands) in the plain of Friuli. These were the ritual Easter lunch, both in homes and conventsPasche de cjalsons was the pop u lar name for the occasion and were considered rich enough to be a one- dish meal. The preparation of these special ravioli is very old: the Liber de ferculis of Giambonino da Cremona, which includes about eighty Arab recipes of both gastronomic and dietetic interest, drawn from a monumental Arabic work by a Baghdad physician who died in 1100,58 contains a recipe for a stuffed pasta, calizon panis, a term that passed into medieval Italian as calisone. It must have been a sweet. The presence of a sweet of Arab origin in the mountains of the Italian north should not be surprising, however, since Frederick II and his court had enormous influence on habits and customs even in northern Germany. Remember, too, the Saracens dominated Provence throughout the tenth century, and today, marzipan ravioli, called calissons, are a specialty of Aix.59
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A fifteenth- century expense note of the convent of Santa Maria in Valle di Cividale attests to the custom of preparing cjalsons for the feast of the Resurrection. Made by the nuns to celebrate various religious holidays, these, too, are

sweet ravioli, variously filled and often dipped in honey. Times have changed and so has the filling for these ravioli. Variants exist at Soandri and in the valleys of the Chiarso, the Tagliamento, and so on. Indeed, every valley has its typical fillings. At Zuglio, in the province of Udine, at the end of the age- old ceremony of the kiss of the crocuses, it is customary to eat sweet cjalsons filled with ricotta and herbs. In Gorto, in the Degano valley, the filling is made from roasted onion, polenta, and raisins. At Cercivento, in Val Calda, herbs, smoked ricotta, dried figs, and raisins are used, and in Val del But, hard rye bread and often apples are found. In Timau, the cjalsons are filled with potatoes scented with mint and cinnamon; and in Val Pesarina, a filling of smoked ricotta, montasio cheese, lemon, and pan di src (rye and corn bread) is assembled. At Ovaro, the filling is the old pastum, made from cheese, raisins, cinnamon, biscotti, and chocolate. In the 1970s, a famous Tolmezzo chef, Gianni Cosetti, or ga nized a competition among the women of Carnia to define the typical recipe for cjarcions. Forty contestants participated; forty different recipes were presented.60 Cheese is omnipresent in the fillings and the sauces, because the people of Carnia have always had a strong culture of products di malga. Toward mid- June, with the melting of the winter snow, the herds leave for the mountain pastures, where they remain until it is time to return for the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary on September 8. In the high- mountain huts, or malghe, smoked ricottas and other cheeses are made, long and patient work that will take all summer and will yield products that will make their way into numerous characteristic cialsons. On the way out and the way back, as the herds travel through the streets of small towns, a festive ringing of cowbells is heard, accompanied by the rhythms of the ancient ciculis (zoccoli), the rough and worn wooden clogs of the cowmen.
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59. code
Pasta corta

di topo

ingredients: Wheat flour and water. how made: The flour is sifted and kneaded long and vigorously with lukewarm water. The dough is left to rest, then walnut- sized pieces are pinched off and rolled on a wooden board into little strings of various sizes, tapered at one end. They are left to dry slightly on a dish towel, then boiled in salted water. also known as: In Lazio, around Palestrina and Frosinone, coda de soreca and gnocchetti a coda de soreca. Lazio is also home to ciuci, a modern, longer shape made from dough that includes porcini flour. In Abruzzo, in Rovere, surgilli, dialect for topini, little mice. how served: As pastasciutta, traditionally with potatoes; but at Rovere (LAquila), they are served with a simple soffritto of garlic, oil, chili, and chopped walnuts. where found: Lazio and Abruzzo. remarks: The name means literally mouse tails. From the acts of the Commissione parlamentare di inchiesta sulla miseria in Italia,61 which was instituted immediately after World War II and finished its work in 1953, emerge conditions of life throughout rural Italy not easily grasped today. The houses were almost always tuguri (shacks), in which the family lived alongside its animals: the pig, the donkey, the hens all precious because they meant survival. In what are now unimaginable nonhygienic circumstances conditions that found mice and other vermin running free in the house a housewife- wag likely created this pasta shape, with its tapered end, inspired by the tails of scurrying mice.
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60. cojtte
Gnocchi/gnocchetti

ingredients: Wheat flour, stale bread, sometimes potatoes, milk, and herbs.

how made: The flour is sifted onto a wooden board and kneaded with bread that has been soaked in milk and squeezed dry. Minced herbs are added to the dough. To cook the pasta, teaspoonfuls of dough are dropped in boiling salted water. When they bob to the surface, they are ready. also known as: Caiettes. how served: As pastasciutta, with butter and local cheese and gratined in the oven. where found: Piedmont, in the Occitan valleys of Cuneo Province. remarks: This pasta is typical of the Occitan cuisine found in the valleys of Cuneo Province. The same cuisine is eaten in Liguria, in the small town of Olivetta San Michele, and even in faraway Calabria, in the old town center of Guardia Piemontese. The latter was founded by the Piedmontese of Val Pellice, who took refuge there to escape the religious persecutions that lasted from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century persecutions that followed them even to their new home. The populations of Piedmontese Occitan language and tradition are very much alive today, and they cultivate their ancient gastronomic traditions and their folklore with manifestations that draw tourists to the valleys. The old Occitan cuisine has become the pride of all the small valley towns, and the name of flavorful dumplings called cojtte is derived from an Occitan dialect term. They can be tasted on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8, called here Madona dle Cojtte, which is especially celebrated in the Gesso and Colla valleys.
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61. conchiglie
Pasta corta

ingredients: Durum- wheat flour and water. how made: Factory made, in the shape of a shell, or conchiglia, smooth or ridged. They come in various sizes and are boiled in abundant salted water. also known as: Abissini, arselle, cinesini, coccioline, cocciolette, conchigliette, tofarelle, and tofettine; the larger sizes are called conchiglioni. how served: The smallest sizes are used in broth- based soups, and the largest are served as pastasciutta, with typical local sauces. where found: Throughout Italy, though the large ones are most common in Campania. remarks: Many master pasta makers have exercised their imagination on this shape, which literally means shells. Some are almost photographically the shape of a seashell. Others are simpler and larger and are the favorites in some areas, such as Campania, where it is customary to fill them with meat, cover them with