Tajarin — Piedmontese Egg Yolk Pasta

The Langhe and Monferrato hills of Piedmont — specifically the areas around Alba, Asti, and Cuneo. The extreme egg yolk ratio is documented in 18th century Piedmontese noble household cookbooks and reflects the wealth of the region's farm eggs.

Tajarin (Piedmontese dialect for tagliolini) are the richest fresh pasta in Italy: thin, narrow egg pasta made with an extraordinary quantity of egg yolks — 30-40 yolks per kilo of flour, with no whole eggs and no water. The high yolk content creates a pasta that is intensely golden, with a rich, custardy flavour and a silky, tender texture entirely different from standard egg pasta. Dressed with butter and white truffle, it is the foundational pasta of Piedmontese haute cuisine.

• Egg pasta tradition — the Bolognese sfoglia uses 1 egg per 100g flour (whole eggs); tajarin uses 30-40 yolks per kilo of flour (yolks only); both are expressions of the northern Italian egg pasta tradition but the Piedmontese version is far more yolk-intense → Sfoglia all'Uovo Emilian
• All-yolk fresh pasta for a particularly rich, golden noodle — French haute cuisine uses yolk-only pasta for its colour and richness; the Piedmontese tajarin tradition predates its adoption in French restaurants → Pâtes Fraîches aux Jaunes d'Oeufs French

The exceptional yolk quantity creates a pasta that tastes custardy and rich even before any sauce — a golden, eggy flavour that standard pasta lacks. With browned butter and white truffle, the pasta acts as a golden carrier for the truffle's heady aromatics. The texture is silky and delicate — it collapses on the tongue rather than being chewed.