Nonna Claudia's Pasta

• Flour "tipo 00" 6 handfuls (or 600 g) – softer flour
• 6 eggs
• 1 handful of semola (durum wheat) flour (farina di semola) – hard flour

On a hot humid day Nonna Claudia used four handfuls of soft flour and two handfuls of semola to four eggs; she said "one handful per egg" -- proportions are influenced by weather.

For green pasta, replace one of the eggs with a handful of steamed spinach, squeezed to remove the water.

Using the "crater" method, mix flour and semola on the board or table, then form a crater and add the eggs.

Combine with a fork.

When the dough starts to come together, use your hands to knead thoroughly – about 10 minutes.

When the dough is lively and its skin supple, cover and let rest for 15-20 minutes before rolling out.

• Parmensan 200 g grated
• Ricotta 400g
• Handful of parsley chopped fine
  (or spinach, rocket, etc.)
  For spinach, steam and squeeze out as much extra water as possible

Mix together thoroughly

Use a pasta machine if you must, but it is much better to roll out the dough with a wooden rolling pin. Choose a pin or smoothed dowel of at least 50 centimeters (30 inches); longer is better. This step gets easier the more you do it, but it is never quick. That's why they call it (proudly!) slow food.

Initially, roll out the dough, rolling away from your body and turning the dough a quarter turn and flipping it frequently, using just enough flour to keep the dough from sticking to pin or table.

Your goal is to achieve a large, nearly square dough so thin you begin to see the table through it.

Very soon, you will not be able to manipulate the dough without winding it onto the pin, and here is where Nonna Claudia's brilliant technique becomes crucial: while the dough is rolled most of the way onto the pin, you can manipulate it with your hands to thin it, turn it, and flip it.

Allowing the dough to hang over the edge of the table (by way of anchor), place the pin a pin's circumference from the far side of the dough, flip the dough over the pin and get it organized to roll onto the pin, then, stretching it gently, roll two thirds of the dough onto the pin. Now roll the pin back and forth half a dozen times, applying gentle pressure, first at the center, then at the edges. Pay close attention to the thickness of the whole dough, correcting any thick spots as soon as you detect them.

Using the pin, continue alternately to rotate the dough a quarter turn, and to flip it. Add flour as necessary to keep the dough from sticking to itself. Assuming you are right handed, each time the dough is rolled out, using the end of the pin, work on the right hand edge away from you to extend it toward a square corner.

Work the corner with the end of the pin to approach squareness (thus avoiding waste.)

When the dough is ready, it will look like the background of this page, like the living skin of a tawny, healthy beast.

Straighten one edge with the rolling cutter, and place 1+ cm balls of filling about 4 cm apart 1 cm inside the straightened edge.

Roll the dough over the top of the filling balls about 2.5-3 cm, and cut along the edge.

Depress the dough slightly between each ball, then cut with the rolling cutter.

With a fork, seal the three edges firmly, trapping as little air as possible.

Set tortelli on a ridged drying tray (or tray covered with cloth) not touching. Repeat until the dough and filling are used up.

Cook immediately, or cover and save at room temperature for cooking the same day, or freeze.

Cook in boiling salted water until the tortelli rise to the surface (about one minute when fresh) then lift out with a slotted spoon or spider. Cook in small batches so as not to lower the boiling water's temperature too much.

Toss the boiled tortelli in butter melted with finely chopped sage, then serve. Alternatively, tortelli can be served with a little meat ragù or tomato and onion sugo (sauce).

You may use same filling, or use a traditional filling of finely ground ham, pork and mortadella with parmesan and an egg to bind.

Cut the same dough with the rolling cutter into squares about 4-6 cm on each side, and place a small ball of filling in the center of each.

Fold the dough square diagonally across the filling, and press the dough to seal it tightly along the two open edges. Fold the opposite corners around your finger and press together, forming a tight little package that looks a little like a belly button.

This is a traditional local pasta from Romagna. It has lots of ridges inside and out to hold the sugo.

With the rolling cutter, cut squares of the same dough about 2.5 – 4 cm on each edge. Place a square diagonally on the "comb".

Pressing gently against the comb, wrap the square around the straw, and continue wrapping, pressing with sufficient force to make grooves in the pasta and seal the dough into a tube.

Slip the garganello off the straw and repeat ... and repeat ... and repeat ... and...

First, let the dough dry enough so that it won't stick to itself, but not so much that it cracks when folded.

Cut a manageable piece of dough, and loosely fold the dough along the straight cut edge creating a flattened roll of dough about 4 or 5 cm wide.

With a sharp straight blade, cut eight or ten strips.

While still rolled, grab their ends and shake out the noodles, and then settle them into nests. Each nest is about enough pasta for one person.

Let the dough dry a little, and while it dries, prepare your sauces. In Romagna, this would be a bechamel and a meat ragù alla Bolognese made with minced beef and pork, onion, carrot, celery, garlic, red wine, tomato passata, a little milk and a little nutmeg. Proceeding slowly, cut sheets or wide noodles a bit smaller than their intended pan. The noodles will get bigger when you boil them.

Take enough cut noodles, or a single sheet just smaller than the pan, and boil it for about a minute, so it is partly cooked through, then start assembling the lasagne –- a bit of each sauce, a layer of noodles; cut and boil the next layer of noodles, and so forth. The winning idea: it's more about the noodles than the sauce, so: many layers of noodles, and little enough sauce so the edges of the noodles aren't drowned, and can crisp a little in the oven. Bake until ready to serve.