Pizzoccheri are a dish that certainly needs no presentation. These thick buckwheat-based noodles were present in the territory of Teglio as early as the late 1700s, over the years they were also cooked in broth with some vegetables as an everyday peasant dish, but the ones we know today are the dish of the party at which invitation no one could refuse. In the history of this traditional dish, everything refers to Teglio, buckwheat, the evolution of the recipe, even a historical poem and an Academy to protect this delicacy. In fact, today we would like to propose the original recipe directly from the Accademia del Pizzocchero di Teglio to better enjoy this tasty dish, symbol of the whole area that goes from Grosio to Castione with its epicenter in Teglio, where a strong bond has been established with the its inhabitants.
Ingredients
(for 4 persons)
400 g of buckwheat flour
100 g of white flour
200 g of butter
250 g of Valtellina Casera PDO cheese
150 g of grated Parmesan cheese
200 g of cabbage
250 g of potatoes
a clove of garlic
pepper
Process
Let’s start by mixing the two flours and kneading them with water, kneading them for 5 minutes until you get a soft and delicate dough. If desired, we can replace the white flour with gluten-free flour or using only buckwheat flour, obtaining a version of pizzoccheri for celiacs, but this will require a bit more energetic processing. Roll the dough with a rolling pin to obtain a sheet of 2-3 millimeters from which we will obtain bands of 7-8 centimeters. We overlap the bands and cut strips in the direction of the width, obtaining noodles of 5 millimeters in width. In a saucepan, bring the water to a boil and add salt. Let’s start adding the potatoes, cut into chunks, as they will need more cooking time, then the cabbage, cut into small pieces. After 5 minutes, add the pizzoccheri. If you want you can replace the cabbage with ribs or green beans. The pizzoccheri will need to cook for about 10 minutes and, in the meantime, prepare the melted butter by frying it with garlic, letting it brown well before serving on the pizzoccheri. Once ready, collect part of the pizzoccheri and vegetables with a slotted spoon and pour them into a hot pan. We sprinkle the surface with parmesan and Valtellina Casera flakes, then again a layer of pizzoccheri and vegetables and another layer of cheeses, so on. We finish the dish by pouring the melted butter, hot, on the surface without stirring. We serve the pizzoccheri piping hot with ground pepper. If you have any doubts, here is the Academy’s video recipe that will surely help you in the preparation.
Enjoy your meal!
Main photo from the Accademia del Pizzocchero in Teglio
