Passatelli in brodo: the Romagna bread and Parmesan recipe

Passatelli are the broth people made when there was little in the house and they wanted a feast anyway. Grated dry bread, the Parmigiano that was never missing from the larder, three eggs and yesterday’s broth: ten minutes and Easter lunch was ready. Even now, in the houses between Cesena and Pesaro, the sound of the iron pressing the mixture over the pan is the sign that Sunday has begun.

The mixture: getting the texture right

The whole recipe lies in the ratio of bread to cheese, which in Romagna is one to one: as much grated bread as Parmigiano, and one egg for every 50 grams of each. But the proportions are only a starting point, because stale bread is never the same twice and neither are eggs. Your hand decides: the mixture should come together into a firm, pliable ball that takes pressure without splitting. The nutmeg is compulsory, the lemon zest is the Romagna signature that sets it apart from the version made in the Marche. The half hour of rest is not a flourish. Without it the bread does not take up the egg and the passatelli crumble in the broth.

The iron, the ricer and the hand

The passatelli iron is a domed metal disc with wide holes and two wooden handles. You set it on the mixture and press with the whole weight of your body, and the passatelli come out thick and irregular, with a rough surface that holds the broth. A potato ricer with the wide hole disc does almost the same job and lives in every kitchen. In our guide to pasta making tools we explain what to look for if you want to buy a real iron. However you make them, cut them at four or five centimetres: longer and they break, shorter and they look like little gnocchi.

The right broth

A passatello has little flavour of its own: it tastes of bread and cheese, and the rest has to come from the broth. So you need a full meat broth, capon or hen with a piece of beef, made unhurriedly and well degreased. We make it in the recipe for cappelletti in brodo and we always make twice as much: what is left over is the next day’s lunch, with passatelli in it.

The seafood version, without broth

On the coast, from Cervia down to Cattolica, passatelli have taken another road: cooked in salted water or a light broth, lifted out with a slotted spoon and tossed in a pan with clams, razor clams and a few prawns, garlic, oil, a cherry tomato and parsley. It sounds like heresy, but it works because the cheese in the mixture is cooked and does not clash with the seafood. The trick is to cook them a minute less and finish them in the pan with a ladle of their own water, so they stay whole.

At the table

Passatelli in brodo go straight to the table, in warm bowls, with Parmesan on the side and pepper for those who want it. They wait for nobody: after ten minutes in the broth they turn to porridge. As our grandmother used to say, and she was a real azdora, the woman who ran the farmhouse kitchen, you make passatelli once everyone is already sitting down.