Chef Erica Liverani‘s recipe
Gastronomy Pastificio Raflò

Ingredients for 3 people

• 100g breadcrumbs
• 100g Parmesan Cheese ( seasoned for 24 months)
• 2 eggs
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 pinch of nutmeg
• grated lemon rind
• 1 litre chicken stock

From the television studios, where she won the title of MasterChef in 2016, Erica went on to become a passionate cook. At 5.30 a.m. from the back of her tasty “Gastronomia Raflò”, with the complicity of her two sisters, she’s already turning out cappelletti, passatelli and fettuccine; cooking ragouts and vegetables, then supervising the delivery of fresh pasta to restaurants and, finally, serving up a hot meal to tradesmen and office workers in her diner.

Despite many and varied activities, Erica the super chef cooks with taste and a good measure of fun, so much so that, in order not to get too bored, she is wont to add a topical flourish to tradition, accentuating contrasts and rediscovering new combinations.

On the other hand – she points out – to become a tradition, every recipe must first be an innovation! For this reason, chef Erica is happy to offer the traditional recipe of passatelli in broth, as well as her “dry” version, flavoured with seafood, cherry tomatoes and garnished with rocket.

To prepare the passatelli Erica mixes together breadcrumbs, Parmesan cheese and eggs, seasoning with salt, lemon peel and nutmeg, until it becomes an even mixture, which the chef leaves to rest for 30 minutes and covers it so that its surface does not get too dry.

Then she squeezes the dough through the “fér”, that is the special iron press for passatelli (but she says that a potato masher with holes of 5 millimetres or more will also do the job), in order to obtain thin strands of rough dough 4-6 centimetres long.

Then, they are immediately tossed into boiling broth and, as soon as they float to the surface, they must be skimmed out with the perforated ladle. They are now ready to be brought to the table served with a little broth.

A simple dish for festive occasions, passatelli are still today a complete and substantial meal. It is said that they were also an excellent traditional medicine for those who were convalescing and women who had recently given birth. They are undoubtedly a tasty stomach balm on long winter evenings.