Cjarsons

Drain the potatoes and peel them while they are still hot, holding each in a cloth. Pass them through the ricer or the sieve, keeping the 3 for the filling apart from the rest. Spread the dough potatoes out in a wide bowl to let the steam escape.

Check Fine and fluffy, with no lumps left.

Tip Note the time the potatoes came out of the pot: from then, the cooked potato has 2 hours out of the fridge. If you made the filling the day before, boil only the 800 g for the dough today.

Pick the leaves of the parsley, mint, lemon balm, marjoram, scented geranium and basil, and chop them finely with the chives and fennel fronds. Melt the 10 g of butter in the small frying pan and cook the herbs for 5 minutes, stirring.

Check Wilted, dark green and fragrant, not browned.

Tip Our guide: keep the heat low; browned herbs turn bitter.

To the 3 sieved potatoes add the 50 g of grated smoked ricotta and the herbs with their butter. Then add the 50 g of sultanas, 30 g of cocoa, 30 g of sugar, 30 g of jam, the 2 grated savoiardi, the grated half pear and half apple, the lemon zest, the 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and a pinch of salt. Mix until it is all one even paste: this is the pistùm. Taste and add salt if needed.

Check An even, soft but firm brown paste, with no streaks of ricotta or cocoa; a teaspoonful holds its shape.

Tip Our guide: the recipe lists these sweet ingredients for the filling but does not say when they go in; mixing them in here, with the ricotta and herbs, makes one even pistùm.

Tip In Carnia the filling is traditionally left to rest, often overnight, so the flavours blend: cover it and keep it in the fridge (see the plan).

Add the 200 g of 00 flour, the 1 egg, a pinch of salt and a pinch of pepper to the potatoes. Work them together with your hands on the board, briefly, just until they form a soft, smooth dough. Dust with a little more flour only if it sticks.

Check Smooth and soft, no longer sticky to the touch, with no streaks of flour.

Tip Our guide: do not knead it like a pasta dough; a potato dough worked for long turns sticky.

Divide the dough in four. Wrap three pieces in cling film and put them in the fridge, to take out one at a time. Dust the board with flour and roll the fourth out to about 3 mm.

Check An even sheet about 3 mm thick that lifts from the board without tearing.

Tip Our guide: the thickness is ours; the recipe gives none. Thinner tears with a potato dough; much thicker and the cjarsons turn heavy.

Cut the sheet into discs 7 cm across with the cutter or the glass. Gather the scraps into a ball, wrap it and put it in the fridge with the other pieces; take it out with the next piece to roll in.

Check Clean round discs, 7 cm across.

Take about a quarter of the filling from the fridge and leave the rest there, covered. Put a teaspoon of it, about 10 g, in the centre of each disc. Fold the disc in half over the filling into a half-moon and press the edges together firmly all round, pushing out the air as you go. Lay them on a floured cloth on a tray, not touching.

Check Plump half-moons sealed all round, with no air bubble around the filling and no filling on the edge.

Tip Typically a small pleat is then pinched into the middle of the curved edge, which gives cjarsons their almost triangular look; some cooks seal the edge with the prongs of a fork instead.

Tip Our guide: if an edge will not stick, touch it with a fingertip dipped in water.

Roll, cut and fill the rest of the dough the same way, taking one piece of dough and about a quarter of the filling from the fridge at a time, with the chilled scraps rolled in; after each piece, wrap the new scraps and put them back in the fridge. Put each tray into the fridge as soon as it is full, unless the cjarsons will be in the pot within 2 hours of the potatoes coming out of theirs. Any dough or filling not yet shaped stays in the fridge, covered, until you use it.

Check About 70 cjarsons; the exact count depends on how thin you roll.

Tip Raw cjarsons can be frozen on the tray at this point (see Keeps).

Melt the 150 g of butter gently in the small pan and keep it warm. Grate the 150 g of smoked ricotta.

Check The butter is fully melted and golden, not browned.

Pour the last of the butter over the dish, scatter the rest of the smoked ricotta and finish with a pinch of cinnamon. Serve at once.

Tip Some cooks add a little sugar with the cinnamon.

Tip Leftovers go into the fridge in a shallow covered container within 2 hours, and keep until 3 days after the first potatoes were boiled (the filling's, if you made it the day before). Reheat them until hot all through, 75 °C.