Lumachelle di Urbino con Prosciutto e Noce Moscata

Ingredients

• For the pasta dough
• 300 g 00 flour
• 6 egg yolks
• 1 pinch fine salt
• For the sauce
• 80 g unsalted butter
• 120 g prosciutto di Carpegna DOP, cut into thin strips
• 1 whole nutmeg, freshly grated, generous amount
• To finish
• 50 g Parmigiano Reggiano, freshly grated, served at the table
• as needed pasta cooking water, reserved before draining

Method

1. 1
   Mound the flour on a work surface and make a well. Add the egg yolks and salt. Work from the centre outward, incorporating the flour gradually until a shaggy mass forms, then knead firmly for 8–10 minutes until the dough is smooth, supple, and springs back slowly when pressed with a thumb. The dough must be pliant — not stiff — so that discs will bend without cracking when wrapped around the rod. Wrap and rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.
2. 2
   Roll the rested dough on a lightly floured surface to a sheet of approximately 2 mm thickness. Cut discs of 2.5 cm diameter with a plain cutter. Working one disc at a time while the dough remains pliable, lay the disc against a 3 mm wooden rod and roll it around the rod with light finger pressure so the edges overlap and the disc becomes a tight spiral tube. Slide the formed lumachella off the rod and set it on a floured cloth. Repeat with all discs. This is where the dish lives or dies: the dough must be soft enough to spiral without cracking, and the overlap must be firm enough that the tube holds its form through cooking.
3. 3
   Leave the shaped lumachelle to dry on the floured cloth for 30 minutes. They are ready when they feel slightly leathery on the surface and hold their spiral form without splaying open.
4. 4
   Bring a large pot of well-salted water to a full boil. Add the lumachelle and cook for 3–4 minutes. Taste at 3 minutes: the pasta should be tender but with a faint resistance at the centre of the spiral. Reserve a ladleful of pasta water before draining. Drain the pasta slightly wet.
5. 5
   While the pasta cooks, melt the butter in a wide sauté pan over medium heat until it foams. Add the prosciutto strips and let them warm through in the butter for 1–2 minutes — they should soften and begin to colour very lightly at the edges. Grate nutmeg generously over the pan. The butter should smell of toasted milk solids, ham, and spice.
6. 6
   Add the drained lumachelle to the pan with a splash of pasta water. Toss over medium heat for 1 minute until every spiral is coated in a glossy, emulsified sauce that clings to the ridges of the shells. The surface of each lumachella should gleam. Serve immediately; pass Parmigiano at the table.