Pansoti al Preboggiòn con Salsa di Noci

Ligurian Riviera di Levante and the hills above Genoa. The pasta dates to at least the 16th century; the use of wild forage greens reflects a Ligurian culture of subsistence cooking transformed into high tradition.

Pansoti — 'pot-bellied' pasta — are triangular filled pasta made without eggs, using a wine-and-water dough, stuffed with preboggiòn: a Ligurian forage mixture of wild herbs and greens (borage, chard, wild chervil, dandelion, nettle) bound with prescinseua curd and Parmigiano. Served with salsa di noci — a walnut sauce made in the mortar or food processor with walnuts, garlic, soaked bread, Parmigiano, marjoram, and olive oil. This is a complete Ligurian signature: wild forage, wine dough, walnut sauce.

The filling is herbaceous, slightly mineral from the wild greens, creamy from the curd — a flavour you associate with hillside and woodland, not garden. The walnut sauce is rich, slightly bitter, nutty, with marjoram sweetness. Together they are one of the most distinctive flavour profiles in Italian cooking.