Agnolotti del Plin — Pinched Pasta of the Langhe

Langhe, Cuneo province, Piedmont — the plin is specifically Langan and is the pasta shape of the Langhe's aristocratic table. The name comes from the Piemontese verb 'plé' (to pinch). The filling uses the meats of the Langhe's farming tradition.

Agnolotti del plin ('plin' means pinch in Piemontese dialect) are the defining filled pasta of the Langhe hills — tiny, rectangular parcels formed by placing a small amount of filling in a line along a pasta sheet, folding the sheet over, and pinching the dough between each portion to seal and separate them. They differ from ravioli in their closure technique (the pinch, not the cut) and in their filling: roasted meats (typically a mixture of braised veal, pork shoulder, and rabbit, bound with egg and Parmigiano), cooked separately for hours before being used. They are served in the braising broth of the meats used for the filling (in brodo), or tossed with a simple butter-and-sage, or 'al tovagliolo' — literally in a cloth napkin, tossed with nothing and eaten plain with only the pasta's heat and the filling's richness.

Agnolotti del plin al tovagliolo — eaten hot and plain — are a study in the flavour of perfectly braised meat wrapped in almost translucent pasta. The filling is dense, slightly gamey from the rabbit, sweetly rich from the veal, with the depth of long braising. The pasta adds texture without competing. It is one of the most restrained and precise pleasures in Italian cooking.