Casoncelli alla Bergamasca · Casonsèi alla Bergamasca
Lombardy · pasta · serves 4 · 150 min total · hard
Bergamo's stuffed pasta. The amaretti-pear filling is a Renaissance survival — sweet-savoury food before sugar was reserved for dessert.
Ingredients
- 300 g '00' flour
- 3 eggs eggs
- 200 g ground beef
- 150 g Italian sausage
- 40 g amaretti, crushed
- 30 g sultanas, soaked
- 1 medium pear, grated
- 60 g breadcrumbs
- 80 g Grana Padano
- 100 g pancetta, diced
- 100 g butter
- 8 leaves sage
- 1 pinch nutmeg
Method
- Brown beef and crumbled sausage in a pan. Cool. Mince finer if needed.
- Combine cooked meat with amaretti, drained raisins, grated pear, breadcrumbs, Grana, an egg, nutmeg. Should be moist and sweet-savoury.
- Pasta: knead flour with remaining eggs. Rest 30 minutes. Roll thin.
- Cut 6 cm discs. Place a teaspoon of filling. Fold in half and pinch a centre seam so the casoncello has a little curve like a sweet wrapper.
- Boil in salted water 3 minutes.
- In a pan, crisp the pancetta in butter. Add sage; the butter should turn nut-brown.
- Toss casoncelli in the brown butter, pancetta, and shower with more Grana.