Maccheroncini di Campofilone

Day 1: the dough

Make the pasta a day or more ahead: it is dried in a dehydrator and kept in the freezer. Without a dehydrator, the cut pasta goes into the fridge and is cooked within 3 days.

1. 1Weigh the eggs

   Start
   Hands-on 2 min

   Break the 3 eggs into a bowl and weigh them: you want about 165 g, and no less than 150 g.

   Check The scale reads 150 g or more.

   Tip Our guide: 3 eggs to 300 g of semolina is 10 to the kilo, the most the specification allows. Below about 150 g the dough is too dry to come together without water: use larger eggs.

2. 2Make the dough

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   Hands-on 15 minOfficial text

   Make the dough with the fresh eggs and the durum wheat semolina. No water may be added.

   Check Hard and elastic: it resists when you press it and springs back slowly.

   Tip Heap the semolina into a well on the board, break the eggs into the middle and beat them with a fork, drawing in the semolina little by little; then work the dough with your hands.

   Tip Work with clean hands, on a clean board never used for raw meat or poultry, and do not taste the raw dough: raw eggs and flour can carry salmonella.

   Tip Our guide: knead for about 10 minutes, pushing the dough away with the heel of your hand and folding it back. It starts crumbly and stiff: keep going, and never add water, however dry it seems.

3. 3Rest the dough

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   Rest 30 minStart 30 min timer

   Wrap the dough in a damp cloth, then in a bag or cling film, and leave it to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.

   Check Cool and firm, with a smooth surface that has not dried out or formed a skin.

   Tip Our guide: rest it in the fridge, not on the worktop. Raw egg dough should spend no more than 2 hours in all at room temperature, counted from when the eggs are broken, and the rolling and cutting take time: the fridge keeps every piece well inside that.

Day 1: rolling, cutting and drying

Work one piece at a time, taking each from the fridge only when you are ready to roll it: roll a sheet, let it firm up while you roll the next, then cut the first, so that no sheet waits more than about 10 minutes. Worked this way, no part of the dough spends more than about 1 1/2 hours at room temperature before it goes into the dehydrator.

1. 4Roll the sheets

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   Hands-on 30–45 minOfficial text

   Roll the dough out by hand, or between rollers, into a sheet between 0.3 mm and 0.7 mm thick.

   Check Held up to the light, the sheet shows the shadow of your hand through it, and it is even all over, with no thicker edges.

   Tip Our guide: cut the dough into 6 pieces of about 75 g–80 g, put five back in the fridge, wrapped, and take them out one at a time. Aim for about 0.5 mm, the middle of the range; a caliper, if you have one, measures it.

   Tip Our guide: the dough is stiff from the fridge. If it cracks at the edges, fold it in three and roll it again; it softens as you work it.

   Tip Our guide: with a pasta machine, start at the widest setting, fold the piece in three and pass it 3 or 4 times, then once through each setting down to the one that gives about 0.5 mm. Each piece makes a strip about 90 cm long: cut it into two lengths of about 45 cm.

   Tip Our guide: with a rolling pin, roll each piece on a board dusted with semolina into a sheet about 35 cm × 40 cm, turning it often.

   Tip Our guide: trim as little as you can. Put the trimmings straight back in the fridge, wrapped, as you cut them, and knead them all into the last piece when you take it out. Discard what you trim from that last piece. The first two sheets then come out a little light and the last one heavier (see the paper step).

2. 5Let each sheet firm up

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   Rest 5–10 min

   Lay each sheet on a cloth dusted with semolina and leave it for a few minutes, turning it once, while you roll the next.

   Check No longer tacky to the touch, but still supple: it bends without cracking.

   Tip Our guide: a sheet this thin, rolled up while still sticky, glues its coils together; left too long, it cracks when you roll it. Cut each one within about 10 minutes.

3. 6Cut the maccheroncini

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   Hands-on 45 min to 1 hOfficial text

   Then cut the sheet to the specified size: threads 0.8 mm–1.2 mm wide and 35 cm–60 cm long.

   Check Threads about 1 mm wide, all alike, as long as the sheet, and none stuck together.

   Tip Dust the sheet lightly with semolina, roll it up loosely and cut across the roll with a very sharp knife.

   Tip Our guide: roll each sheet up from a short edge, so the threads come out as long as the sheet, about 40 cm–45 cm. Cut at about 1 mm, the middle of the range, and shake the threads loose as soon as each roll is cut.

   Tip Campofilone's cooks cut them this fine because coarser pasta curled and broke as it dried; fine threads stay whole.

4. 7Lay them on paper

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   Hands-on 10 minOfficial text

   Lay the cut maccheroncini on sheets of white food paper 22 cm–26 cm wide and 32 cm–35 cm long, 155 g–175 g of fresh pasta to each sheet.

   Check Three sheets, the first two of about 140 g–150 g and the last of about 170 g–185 g, the threads lying in loose folds.

   Tip Fold the threads in two as you lay them on the paper.

   Tip Our guide: cut three sheets of white baking paper or greaseproof paper to 24 cm × 33 cm, put the threads of two pieces on each and weigh them as you go. This batch averages about 155 g a sheet, the bottom of the specification's range, but the sheets are not even: the trimmings of the first five pieces all go into the sixth, so the first two sheets come out light, about 140 g–150 g, and the last one heavy, about 170 g–185 g. A home batch keeps the specification's 155 g–175 g a sheet only roughly.

5. 8Dry them in a dehydrator, at once

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   Rest 2–4 hStart 2 h timer

   As each sheet is full, slide its threads, in their loose folds, onto a tray of a food dehydrator heated to 57 °C, and dry them for 2–4 hours, until they snap. No part of the dough may spend more than 2 hours in all at room temperature, counted from when the eggs were broken, before it goes in.

   Check The threads snap cleanly when bent, even in the thickest part of a nest, with none still soft; each sheet's pasta weighs about a quarter less than it did fresh.

   Tip In Campofilone the packets go into drying rooms at 28 °C–40 °C for 24 to 36 hours, a controlled process in the pasta works. At home, food-safety guidance for egg pasta allows no more than 2 hours at room temperature, since raw eggs and flour can carry salmonella and drying does not kill it; so this page dries the pasta fast and hot instead.

   Tip Our guide: keep each sheet's threads together on their tray, or on their paper if it fits the tray. Start checking after 2 hours, and turn a nest over if its underside is still soft.

   Tip No dehydrator? Do not dry them at room temperature. As each sheet is full, lay its threads, dusted with semolina, in an airtight box and put it in the fridge; cook them within 3 days, straight from the fridge. Fresh, they cook faster than dried.

6. 9Fold the packets and freeze them

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   Hands-on 5 min

   Lay each sheet's dried threads back on their paper and fold the paper in on its four sides, as Campofilone's makers do, so that no pasta falls out. Pack the packets in an airtight box or freezer bag and keep them in the freezer; use them within 3–6 months.

   Check Three closed packets, sealed airtight, in the freezer.

   Tip Dried home-made egg pasta is no longer kept in the cupboard: it goes into the freezer.

   Tip Our guide: cook the packets straight from the freezer, and handle them gently: the dried threads are fragile and break if knocked.

Day 2: the sugo

Start about 3 hours before you eat, or the day before.

1. 10Prepare the vegetables and the meat

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   Hands-on 15 min

   Peel the onion and the carrot, trim the celery and chop all three finely. Cut the beef into chunks of about 3 cm if it is not already cut, skin the sausages and crumble the meat, and grate the pecorino.

   Check The vegetables are in small, even pieces, so they melt into the sugo.

2. 11Soften the vegetables

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   Hands-on 10 minHeat low

   Warm the olive oil in the wide pan and let the onion, carrot and celery soften in it, stirring now and then.

   Check Soft, translucent and shrunk, not browned.

   Tip Our guide: about 10 minutes over a low heat.

3. 12Brown the beef with the spices

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   Hands-on 10 minHeat low to medium-low

   Add the stewing beef, the 2 cloves, a light grating of nutmeg and a pinch each of salt and pepper, and let the beef brown slowly, turning the pieces.

   Check The beef is browned on all sides.

   Tip Our guide: about 10 minutes. If the beef gives off liquid and stews instead of browning, raise the heat a little until it has gone.

4. 13Add the mince and the sausage, then the wine

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   Hands-on 15 minHeat medium

   Add the minced beef and the crumbled sausage and brown them well, breaking them up with the wooden spoon. Pour in the white wine and let it bubble away.

   Check The mince is brown all through, with no pink left, and the wine has almost gone and no longer smells sharp.

   Tip Our guide: about 10 minutes for the meat, then 2–3 minutes for the wine, scraping the bottom of the pan.

5. 14Simmer, covered

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   Cooking 1 h 30 min to 2 hHeat low: the gentlest bubbleStart 1 h 30 min timer

   Pour in the passata and the 300 ml of water, stir everything together, put the lid on and cook over a low heat for 1 1/2–2 hours, stirring every 20 minutes or so.

   Check A piece of beef breaks when pressed with a spoon, and the sugo is thick and dark red.

   Tip Our guide: if the sugo is still thin at the end, cook it uncovered for the last 15–20 minutes; if the beef is still firm, give it up to 30 minutes more.

6. 15Finish with half the pecorino

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   Hands-on 2 min

   Stir in half of the grated pecorino, then taste and add salt if it needs it. Fish out the 2 cloves.

   Check The cheese has melted into the sugo and it tastes properly seasoned.

   Tip Our guide: made ahead, the sugo goes into the fridge in shallow containers within 2 hours of cooking and keeps for 3 days; bring it back to the boil before you dress the pasta.

Day 2: cooking and serving

1. 16Bring the water to the boil

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   Hands-on 2 minHeat high

   Bring 4 l of water to the boil in the large pot, covered, and add the 40 g of coarse salt; it takes about 15–20 minutes. Keep the sugo warm over a very low heat.

   Check The water is at a full rolling boil before the pasta goes in.

2. 17Cook the maccheroncini

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   Cooking 1–2 minHeat highOfficial textStart 2 min timer

   Cook them in boiling water for one to two minutes.

   Check Tender, with a slight bite, and still in long threads.

   Tip Unfold the packets, slide the nests into the water one at a time and do not stir them: the threads break.

   Tip Our guide: about 2 minutes; taste a thread after the first minute. Before you drain them, set aside a cup of the cooking water.

   Tip Fresh, undried threads cook faster than dried ones. Our guide: taste one after 30 seconds.

3. 18Drain and dress

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   Hands-on 2 min

   Drain the maccheroncini and dress them with the sugo, adding a few spoonfuls of the cooking water if it needs loosening.

   Check Every thread is coated, with no pool of sauce or water left.

   Tip In Campofilone the pasta is traditionally dressed on a wooden board, which takes up the extra cooking water.

4. 19Serve with the pecorino

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   Hands-on 1 min

   Scatter the rest of the pecorino over the top and serve at once.

   Tip Our guide: leftovers go into the fridge within 2 hours, in shallow containers, and keep for 3 days; reheat them until steaming hot, 75 °C at the centre.