Liguria
Coin-shaped pasta from the eastern Liguria Levante coast, embossed with a decorative pattern using a traditional carved wooden stamp. The corzetti are made from a semolina and white wine dough, pressed thin and stamped with two-sided carved wooden coins that imprint a flower or geometric pattern. Dressed with a raw walnut pesto (salsa di noci) — cream, garlic, marjoram, pine nuts and walnuts — that clings to the embossed surface.
Creamy, nutty, garlicky and faintly bitter from the walnuts; marjoram adds an herbal brightness; the embossed pasta surface holds the thick sauce in its grooves — pasta as craft object and culinary vehicle simultaneously
{"The dough must be fairly stiff to hold the embossed pattern during cooking — use less water than a standard pasta dough","White wine in the dough (replacing some water) gives a slight acidity and keeps the dough more elastic","Press with the stamp using firm, even pressure — uneven pressure produces a partial imprint that doesn't hold the sauce","For the salsa di noci: blanch and peel walnuts, then pound in a mortar with garlic, pine nuts, marjoram and fresh white bread soaked in milk","Dress cold — the walnut sauce must coat the cold pasta rather than warming; heat oxidises the walnuts rapidly"}
{"The carved wooden corzetti stamps are still made by artisans in Chiavari — each family traditionally had a personalised design","Toasted pine nuts added to the salsa di noci give textural contrast to the pounded walnut base","A small amount of Prescinsôa (Ligurian curd) in the walnut sauce replaces milk-soaked bread in the traditional version"}
{"Soft dough that loses the embossed pattern during boiling — the pattern must be deep enough to survive cooking","Blending the walnut sauce — mortar pounding preserves texture and prevents the oxidation that turns walnut sauce grey","Hot pasta with walnut sauce — the walnut oil oxidises and turns bitter within minutes of heat contact"}
La Cucina Ligure di Levante — Mare, Montagna e Pasta