Ingredients:
400g durum wheat flour
200g ricotta (sheep’s milk)
150g sausage
2 tbsp extravirgin olive oil
parsley to taste
Hot red chilli pepper, to taste
Grated pecorino cheese, to taste
Salt, to taste
Description:
We’re in southern Italy, where hand-made pasta is de rigour. The tools of old are still used, things like “cavarole” in this case, the small ridged wooden boards that shepherds used to make during the long and solitary hours tending their flocks.
Preparation:
Mix the flour with salt and water to make a firm, springy dough. Set it aside for a few minutes then roll it out into long snakes around 1cm in diameter. Dust with flower then chop into 3cm sections. Pressing down with the fingers of one hand, supported by the pressure of the other, drag the small sections over the cutting board to make an elongated shape: these are strascinati. Chop and fry the sausage in a pan with olive oil.
Remove from heat after a few minutes and add the ricotta.
Finally, add the boiled strascinati in plenty of salted water, stir, mix everything together and serve.
