Today, chef Silvia Barban looks to the region of Le Marche in central Italy, which sits on the Adriatic Sea, just south of Emilia-Romagna. From her Brooklyn kitchen, she continues her pasta journey with crestaiate (cresc' tajat in dialect) a pasta from the Pesaro Urbino province. The recipe follows – buon appetito!
Cresc' Tajat or Crestaiate by Chef Silvia Barban
Serves 2
Ingredients:
For the pasta
1 cup corn flour
¾ cup ‘00’ flour
½ cup hot water
For the sauce:
5 oz. cooked Cannellini beans and borlotti beans cooked in vegetable stock
1 carrot, chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
½ onion, chopped
rosemary, thyme, and sage
1 garlic clove
3 oz. grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese (It's never enough, add as much you like!)
Parmigiano rind
2 cups vegetable broth
salt - fresh ground black pepper
Method:
Combine the corn flour with the flour, add the hot water and mix first with a fork, then with your hands. Mix the dough till it smooth then cover and let it rest for 1 hour.
In the meantime, cook the beans. In a separate pot, cook all the chopped vegetables with olive oil slowly. When tender, add the vegetable as the whole garlic and let everything cook together for around 15 minutes. Note: Add broth if needed and, if you have them, add Parmigiano rinds – they have tons of flavor!
Separately, slowly warm up a pot with olive oil and the herbs to make an herb oil.
Unwrap the dough and roll it out with a rolling pin, until around about 2–3 mm thick. Slice into broad strips (around 1½″ in wide), then cut along the strips on the diagonal to create small diamond shapes.
Boil some water and add salt, cook the pasta for around 2 minutes, then add it to the beans and cook all together for a few minutes more. Add the herb oil to the pasta and a bit of fresh black pepper. Make sure the pasta has the right amount of broth – the result should be very creamy.
Buon appetito!