Name: Passatelli (Breadcrumb and Parmigiano Pasta in Broth)
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 2 h 10 min
Total time: 2 h 40 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Italian
Ingredients: 150 g dry breadcrumbs; 150 g Parmigiano Reggiano; 3 eggs; 0.5 tsp nutmeg; 0.5 tsp lemon zest; 1 pinch salt; 0.25 tsp black pepper; 1 kg chicken; 1 onion; 1 carrot; 1 stick celery; 1 tsp salt

Ingredients

4servings

Passatelli (serves 4)
dry breadcrumbs · white bread, crusts off, dried and ground fine, then sieved150 g
Parmigiano Reggiano · grated yourself; see the tips150 g
eggs · large, at room temperature3
nutmeg · grated0.5 tsp
lemon zest · optional, finely grated0.5 tsp
salt1 pinch
black pepper0.25 tsp
Broth
chicken · bone-in pieces1 kg
onion1
carrot1
celery1 stick
salt · to season the broth, at the end1 tsp

Steps

Put the chicken, onion, carrot and celery into 2L of cold water, drop the heat before it boils and hold it at a bare tremble for 2 hours, skimming. This broth goes into the bowl as it is, so cloudy here means cloudy on the table.
⏲ 120 min
Strain the broth clear and season it with salt. All the seasoning happens now — the passatelli cook in the broth, so there is no separate chance to salt the pasta later.
⏲ 10 min
Mix the breadcrumbs and the Parmigiano — equal weights — in a large bowl with the nutmeg, lemon zest, salt and pepper.
⏲ 5 min
Beat in the eggs and bring it together by hand into a stiff, firm mass. Do not knead it: there is no gluten to develop. Crumbly, add a little more egg; slack, a little more Parmigiano.
⏲ 10 min
Wrap it and rest 30 minutes. The crumbs take up the egg evenly and it firms as they do.
⏲ 30 min
Bring the broth to a bare simmer. At a rolling boil the passatelli knock against each other and break up.
⏲ 5 min
Load a potato ricer or a wide-holed sieve — the proper tool is a ferro dei passatelli — and press it directly over the pot, cutting the strands off at 3-4cm as they fall.
⏲ 5 min
Cook 2 minutes. They are done when they rise. Longer and they start to dissolve and cloud the broth.
⏲ 2 min
Ladle out with the broth straight away and grate more Parmigiano over.
⏲ 2 min

Variations

A little flour: modern recipes add a spoonful or two to make it easier to handle. It breaks up less, and it moves that much closer to being an ordinary noodle.
The cheese-to-crumb ratio: 1:1 is standard, and around Pesaro and Urbino they go heavier on the cheese. More cheese means a slacker mass, so bring it back with crumbs.
The broth: chicken is standard, though a brodo misto with beef in it is common. In Romagna it is Christmas and Easter food.
The name comes from passare, to pass through. The proper tool is a ferro dei passatelli.

More detail and the reasons why (2)

Passatelli asciutto: lifted out and dressed instead of served in broth — butter, a ragù, sea urchin or clams. Common on the Romagna coast. Cooked in salted water and the water discarded.
Against spätzle: both are pressed through holes, but spätzle is a flour-and-egg batter with gluten in it, boiled in salted water, drained and tossed in butter. Here pressing is not a convenience but the only option — there is no dough to roll and cut.

Tips

Which is why it cannot be made ahead. Boiled in water and drained it takes up water and falls apart. Pressed over the pot and given two minutes is the condition of the dish.
Crumbly, add egg; slack, add cheese. Never water. Water is that much more for the broth to pull back out.
A potato ricer is fine. 4-5mm holes are right. With a sieve, push it through with the back of a spoon.

More detail and the reasons why (5)

With no flour in it, the only thing holding it together is egg. Most noodles are held by one of two things. Kalguksu, Lanzhou lamian, orecchiette and daoxiaomian are held by gluten; khanom chin, cheung fun and yam wun sen by gelatinised starch. Passatelli has neither. The crumbs have already been baked, so they cannot build a new network, and the cheese is dry protein. What is left is egg, and egg sets with heat (cooking eggs).
Do not let the broth boil. At a rolling boil the strands knock together and break, and what breaks off clouds the broth. Stocks and broth's rule matters twice as much here, because the broth is half the dish and there is nowhere to hide a cloudy one.
Season the broth completely. Cooking noodles says salted water is your only chance to season a noodle. Here the salted water is the broth, so an underseasoned broth gives you underseasoned pasta. Pasta e fagioli makes the same demand for the same reason.
The crumbs must be dry. Fresh breadcrumbs carry water, which slackens the mass and makes it dissolve in the pot. Dry the crumb of a white loaf slowly, grind it fine and sieve it. Other dishes that use dry bread — umm ali, gazpacho, vepřo knedlo zelo — all want the bread to drink the liquid. Here bread drinking the liquid is the failure.
Grate the Parmigiano yourself. Pre-grated cheese carries anti-caking starch and gives a mealy mass. A 24-month wheel brings enough salt and savour that almost no extra salt is needed.

The basics behind this dish

Cooking basics →

More of the same kind

Noodles →

More from this country

Italian →