Homemade Sicilian pasta

Typically aliesi are cavatieddi and maccarrùna, everyone in town knows how to talk about them. Enriched with tasty condiments, they are known in various parts of the island, but cunzàti cu l`astrattu were born in Alia, the local elders assert. According to some scholars, the Sicilians since the Middle Ages were called mangiamaccarrùna, according to others, they were also the inventors of pasta and empirical tools for its manufacture and in this case of busi, water guard irons and juncu threads with which the housewife alisa helped herself to work the pasta. Homemade pasta, with the arrival of industrial civilization, had been banned from our modern kitchens, as Lalia's woman also wanted to feel emancipated and refined, proudly serving the industrial "product".

For some years, however, since there is a tendency to the recovery and maintenance of peasant traditions, the homemade pasta has been fully revalued and it often happens to admire on the canteens of our Paisani, spirlonga of cavatieddi and maccarrùna with sauce , which are greeted with approving smiles by young people and awaken in the hearts of those who are "of a certain age" sweet memories of past times.

Our dish, in its original version, or with some retouching, unlike the fate of lu pitirri, has long been included in the list of precious restaurants and renowned trattorias. Fresh pasta is offered in different formats, but the Aliesi are proud of cavatieddi and maccarùna, who boast their leadership.

On a shelf (formerly the maidda and lu scanatùri), the durum wheat flour (which can be found in some mills in the area) is mixed with a little salt and warm water, which is added as needed. At first the mixture is frisculìa (crumbles between the fingers) and is worked for a long time with the hands, until obtaining a soft, smooth and elastic dough. It is gradually flattening cu lu sagnaturi (the rolling pin), whose roughness favors the perfect processing of the dough and it is thinning into a consistent sheet that turns around and is often dusted with flour, to prevent the dough from sticking.

Once you have formed a nice pàmpina half a centimeter thick, roll it up not too tightly and cut out sticks two centimeters longer than cold and five centimeters more maccarrùna. One at a time, they are passed one by one on a knitting needle and the other on a reed thread, with a crawling motion so that the dough adheres around the tool. It goes back and forth by pressing with the palm of the hand and with a decisive and prolonged final tap that evokes respectively an Argentine tinkle and the rustle of straw. Pleasant music that gladdened our childhood when mothers were preparing to finish the work of art!

Now lu cavatieddu (a kind of fusillo) and lu maccarrùni (big, bucatino) take off from the tool and gradually let themselves dry on the tablecloth. The pasta (one or the other shape) is boiled in plenty of water with the addition of salt during boiling, drain well and season with cu l`astrattu and ricotta salata, if you want to respect tradition. Here is a first course of our modern and sophisticated tables. Unique and inimitable dish of the past with an exhilarating flavor, pride above all of the Aliese cuisine.