Summer in Abruzzo ushers in delicious heavy baskets of assorted vegetables and fruits with zero food miles, combine these with traditional Italian leafy herbs at their scented best means that a ‘Meatless Monday’ pasta treat by Mamma is something to relish.
Tacconelle Pasta with Fagiolini uses the flat diamond shaped pasta that has roots deep in the cucina povera of the region. It is important across Abruzzo’s 4 provinces, even having sagre devoted to its ability to showcase its accompaniments rather than take over it with tubes and clever pasta twirls. If you don’t want to make your own your own you can cheat by buying fresh lasagne sheets and cutting them into diamonds, but obviously you’ll miss the texture that the semolina that we add in Vasto.
Meatless Monday Pasta Treat by Mamma
Recipe Type: Main
Cuisine: Italian
Author:
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 4
A light healthy bean summer pasta dish with roots in Abruzzo’s cucina povera, perfect for those that like a dish of contrasting textures
Ingredients
- For the Pasta
- [url attid=”3570″ href=”http://www.italiasweetitalia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/8124430656_5e91c1a02f_b.jpg”][img src=”http://www.italiasweetitalia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/8124430656_5e91c1a02f_b.jpg” alt=”Hard Wheat Semonlina Pasta Flour” title=”Hard Wheat Semonlina Pasta Flour” width=”1024″ height=”682″ class=”alignleft size-full wp-image-3570″][/url]
- 400 g Hard Durum Wheat Semolina Flour
- 2 eggs
- A Good Pinch of Salt
- Enough water to create a dough
- For the Sugo
- 400 g French Beans
- 400 g Roughly Chopped Fresh Tomatoes
- 1 Clove of Garlic
- ½ Green or Red pepper Cut into Strips
- 2 Basil Leaves Roughly Torn
- Generous Glug of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Salt According to Taste
Instructions
- Add the flour onto a clean kitchen work surface and make a well in the middle. Break the eggs into the well and beat with a fork.
- [url attid=”3562″ href=”http://www.italiasweetitalia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/8112278199_dbfe1d5d13_z.jpg”][img src=”http://www.italiasweetitalia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/8112278199_dbfe1d5d13_z.jpg” alt=”Beating the eggs in the flour well” title=”Beating the eggs in the flour well” width=”640″ height=”426″ class=”alignleft size-full wp-image-3562″][/url]
- Stir in the flour from the bottom of the well with the fork until the dough in the centre is smooth in consistency.
- Using your hands, gradually incorporate the flour from the outside of the well toward the centre adding water as necessary, knead gently until the mass of dough comes together and continue kneading until it is smooth. (You may need to add more flour, or water depending on the density of the eggs. If the dough is sticky, knead more flour into it.)
- On a lightly floured surface roll the dough out until it is very thin with your “mattarello” (rolling pin). Alternatively, if you have a pasta machine, follow the manufacturer’s instructions for rolling out the dough into sheets about 1 mm thick.
- Cut the pasta into diamond shapes and set apart, try to keep the diamonds separate to avoid them from sticking to one another.
- [url attid=”3583″ href=”http://www.italiasweetitalia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/1001461_587391324625056_2141935329_n1.jpg”][img src=”http://www.italiasweetitalia.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/1001461_587391324625056_2141935329_n1.jpg” alt=”Tacconelle made with Semolina Flour” title=”Tacconelle made with Semolina Flour” width=”720″ height=”480″ class=”alignleft size-full wp-image-3583″][/url]
Sugo
- Top and tail the green bean and boil in boiling salted water for about 30 min or until they become al dente according to taste.
- Fry the tomatoes, garlic, pepper and basil together to create a light sauce. Halfway through their cooking, add the previously boiled green beans and cook on a low heat for about 10 minutes
- Mix the pasta and green bean sugo together
- Serve with peperoncini (chilli pepper) according to taste
