← Nouns Cooking · Italian

Ingredients

• 400 g 00 flour or plain flour
• 12 egg yolks (about 200 g)
• 1 pinch Salt
• 3 tbsp semolina, for dusting
• 100 g unsalted butter
• 12 sage leaves
• 80 g Grana Padano or Parmesan, finely grated
• black pepper, to serve (optional)

Method

1. Heap the flour on a board, make a deep well and add the yolks and salt. Beat the yolks with a fork, drawing in the flour bit by bit, then knead by hand for 10 min until the dough is smooth, firm and bright yellow. If it stays crumbly, work in a teaspoon of water.
2. Wrap the dough and leave it at room temperature for 30 min so it relaxes.
3. Cut it into 4 pieces. Roll each one out very thinly, to about 1 mm (one of the last settings on a pasta machine), dusting with semolina. Lay the sheets on a floured cloth for 10 min, until they feel leathery but still bend without cracking.
4. Dust each sheet, roll it up loosely like a cigar and slice it into ribbons 2–3 mm wide. Shake the strands loose straight away and toss them with more semolina into little nests.
5. Bring a big pot of salted water to the boil. Meanwhile, melt the butter with the sage in a wide pan over medium-low heat for 3–4 min, until the leaves are crisp and the butter is pale gold and smells nutty.
6. Drop the tajarin into the water and cook for 1–2 min, until tender. Lift them into the butter pan with a small ladle of the cooking water.
7. Toss over low heat with half the cheese until the butter turns glossy and clings to every strand. Serve at once with the rest of the cheese and a little pepper.

Tips

• Turn the leftover egg whites into meringues or an egg-white frittata.
• In autumn the Piedmontese shave white truffle over tajarin dressed exactly like this; a meat ragù is the other classic.
• Parmesan and Grana Padano are made with animal rennet, so choose a vegetarian hard cheese if that matters to you.

Sources

Written in our own words after cross-checking these recipes:

Great Italian Chefs BBC Good Food