Tagliatelle, Romagna Style

History

Tagliatelle belong to the fresh egg-pasta tradition of Emilia-Romagna, whose foremost home is Bologna, though the ribbons are shared with neighboring Marche. The defining formula is spare and regional: roughly one egg to every hundred grams of flour, worked into a thin hand-rolled sfoglia and cut into long strands whose name comes straight from tagliare, to cut. Written traces reach back into the Renaissance courts of the region: pasta of this kind appears in Cristoforo di Messisbugo's 1549 treatise for the Este household at Ferrara, and among the shapes catalogued by Tommaso Garzoni in 1593. The much-repeated tale that a Bolognese cook, Mastro Zefirano, cut the first ribbons in 1487 to echo Lucrezia Borgia's golden hair is not a medieval memory at all but a modern romance, invented by the humorist Augusto Majani in the 1930s. Artusi's 1891 version sits well before the shape was fixed by rule: only in 1972 did the Italian Cooking Academy register an official width at Bologna's Chamber of Commerce, preserved there as a gold replica about 8 mm across when cooked. His headnote treats the dish as a point of regional pride, insisting the long ribbons keep their Italian character against the fashion for finely shredded soups; the recipe itself simply makes the sfoglia, cuts it, and dresses it rustically with a knob of butter.

Ingredients

• tagliatelle
• condiment of spaghetti alla rustica (No. 104)
• butter

Instructions

1. Make and cut an egg-and-flour tagliatelle sheet as in No. 69.
2. Cook them briefly and drain well.
3. Toss in a pan over the heat to take up the dressing of spaghetti alla rustica (No. 104), plus a proportionate piece of butter; stir gently and serve.