Italy is known the world over for its cuisine, which is made up of a multitude of regional dishes and delicacies. Food writer Hugo McCafferty explains how to prepare the traditional ‘pizzoccheri’, which come from the northern, mountainous part of the Lombardy region.
At this time of year, as the leaves turn brown and the forest floor is covered in chestnuts and mushrooms, Italian cuisine takes on a much heartier character.
As a general rule, the regional dishes that hail from the northern, more mountainous part of the country are heavier and higher in calories.
That’s because of the type of ingredients that grow at a higher altitude, but also because the farmers and workers who lived in Italy’s mountains and valleys traditionally needed plenty of calories to get through their working days.
Nothing exemplifies Italian ‘mountain cuisine’ more than the traditional pizzoccheri, a tagliatelle-like pasta made with a mixture of buckwheat flour and wheat flour, and served with butter, cheese, cabbage, potatoes and garlic.
Hailing from the Valtellina valley, in the Lombardy region, close to the border with Switzerland, pizzoccheri are synonymous with high-altitude mountain refuges, as well as nonna’s Sunday lunches.
It was the staple diet of the hardworking land workers, cattle farmers and wine growers who toiled through the conquests of Spanish, Austrian and French armed forces to keep a crucial artery of trade alive.
The first record of pizzoccheri goes back to 1550, when they appeared in the Category of Inventories of Things that May be Eaten in Italy by author Ortensio Lando.
Buon appetito #pizzoccheri pic.twitter.com/tWmQ0T3w0F
— magatz (@magatz) October 14, 2024
Buckwheat is not a cereal, nor a member of the grass family like wheat, barley, or rye. It comes from the seeds of a flower, and is therefore suitable for people with celiac disease (Lombardy is the Italian region with the highest number of people with celiac disease).
The etymology of the name pizzoccheri is unclear but is believed to have derived from ‘pit’ or ‘piz’, meaning a ‘bit’, or a ‘pinch’. This could refer to the speckled colour or rough texture of the pasta itself.
An alternative theory speculates that the word pinzochera, which indicates poverty and simplicity and was used by authors of the likes of Dante Alighieri and Giovanni Boccaccio, may be a reference to the dish’s status as ’peasant food’.
Whatever the origins of the name, pizzoccheri are alive and well and a beloved dish not just in Lombardy, but across the north.
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The beauty of pizzoccheri is that they contain very few ingredients and are simple to make, so consistent outcomes are almost guaranteed when making them at home.
You can find the recipe for how to make pizzoccheri below.
You can of course choose to use store-bought pasta, which means the dish can be ready in as little as 20 minutes. However, making your own pasta is generally preferable.
Ingredients
250g buckwheat flour
150g 00 flour
200ml warm water
To Serve
100g savoy cabbage
700g potatoes, peeled and diced into 2cm pieces
1 garlic clove, sliced
75g butter
60g Valtellina Casera cheese (or Fontina) grated
10g Grano Padano dop
Salt & pepper
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How to make pizzoccheri
Take both flours, sift and combine in a bowl. Add the water and mix, until you obtain a dough. Tip it out onto a floured board and knead vigorously for about ten minutes until a consistent ball of pasta dough is formed.
Roll the pasta out on the board until you have a thin sheet about 2 millimetres thick. Cut the pasta into strips of about 1 centimetre thick – don’t worry about uniformity or length of the pasta strips as pizzoccheri are always rough in form.
La mia prima volta coi pizzoccheri fatti da me. 😋😋😋#MoiraInCucina pic.twitter.com/lYwoSabJtu
— 𝔾𝕒𝕥𝕥𝕒𝕃𝕠𝕔𝕒 🐾 ⭐️⭐️ (@gatta_loca) October 25, 2023
Peel and cut the potatoes, leaf the cabbage and cut into small strips. Add the cabbage to a big pot of boiling, salted water and cook for about 8 minutes. Add the potatoes and the pizzoccheri to the water and cook for a further 10 minutes.
In the meantime, melt the butter in a pan and grate the garlic cloves into it. Cut the Casera cheese into small cubes and set aside.
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When the pizzoccheri are ready, drain, keeping a cup of the pasta water aside, and spill it all back into the empty pot. Add the cubed cheese when the pasta is still piping hot and mix thoroughly.
Add some pasta water to loosen the whole thing and continue to cook on a very low heat, stirring all the time.
Serve in bowls with grated Grana Padano cheese on top. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with a dry white wine like a Soave.
Dining and Cooking