Adri Barr Crocetti

A Pasta with a Past

Win this corzetti stamp made by Artisanal Pasta Tools!
Tell me your favorite pasta shape in the comments at the end of the article!

This is Part 5 of The Corzetti Files

Call this pasta what you will, the craze is on. When I first wrote about corzetti stampati (stamped pasta coins) almost three years ago, a Google search yielded few hits in English. Today there are hundreds. Corzetti even has its own Twitter hashtag: #corzetti. Tradition is a good thing, especially when it comes into vogue. One of the people driving this popularity is Terry Mirri, owner of Artisanal Pasta Tools. In his Napa California workshop he fashions wooden corzetti stamps and other tools of classic Italian cooking. I extend my thanks to Terry who has provided a hand made corzetti stamp fashioned of Osage Orange wood as a prize for this Giveaway.

Liguria is a verdant strip of Italy that arcs along the Italian Riviera. Green herbs, garlic, vegetables, fruit and nut trees grow in profusion in this sun-drenched land, protected from the bitter northern winds by the mountains that form Liguria’s land borders. As the summer sun recedes and the wet weather arrives, the fertile earth gives forth meaty porcini mushrooms. This is a land where plants and flowers thrive, and the silvery leaves of olive trees glimmer in the Italian sun.

Corzetti stampati has been part of the region’s culinary tradition for hundreds of years. The pasta stretches back to the height of The Most Serene Republic of Genoa. A maritime titan, Genoa (now the capital of Liguria) grew rich through trade. Her gold and silver Crusader coins with their images of the Crusader’s cross, also known as the Jerusalem cross, and the gates of the city were memorialized through the two piece wooden stamps used to make this pasta.

Stamps also feature coats of arms, lucky symbols, Christian crosses, and other decorative designs, all made to order for families and cooks. These ingenious tools both cut and imprint the pasta. Traditionally they are made of neutral woods such as pear or beech, woods that will not flavor the dough.

The dough can be made with white, whole wheat, or chestnut flours. Often all three versions are served together for textural and color variation. Vermentino wine and marjoram can be added to the dough, imparting true regional flavor; even the steam that rises from the pot is remarkably fragrant. For this recipe I used proportions I learned from Giuliano Bugialli, the master himself. Read more… »