Pansoti, the ravioli from Liguria!

If you are in Liguria, you have to try them! Pansoti is a kind ravioli, a kind of stuffed pasta. Another characteristic is that their filling is made only of herbs (!). They are served with a special hazelnut sauce that contrasts well the flavour of pansoti.

History

Even if nowadays they are famous in the whole of Italy, they are not the very ancient meal.  They were first mentioned in 1931 in a local, cooking guide as “pansoti  cu a salsa de nuge“. Then in 1961 pansoti became very popular thanks to the famous restaurant in Recco –“Manuelina”.

Name

Exist different versions that explain how the name of pansoti was given. The first claimed that the name comes from the Ligurian world “pansa“, that means belly. It was explained that the stuffed part of pansoti looks like a full belly. Another version claims that the name comes from the surname of the French general Pansoit. He lived in Liguria at the end of the XIX century and probably tried or even invented them too.

Shape

There is no official, unique shape of pansoti. In the zone of Genoa, pansoti are round and folded. However, in eastern Liguria, they are simply triangles or half moons with filling.

Recipe

Ingredients

Filling

1 kg preboggion (it is a mix of 14 different kinds of herbs that have been scaled in boiled water before) the herbs that are used for preparing pansoti are: Urospermum an, Beta vulgaris, Borago officinalis, Sonchus oleraceus, Cichorium intybus, Leontodon hispidus, Papaver rhoeas, Reichardia picroides, Urtica dioica, Hyoseris radiata , Campanula rapunculus, Sanguisorba minor, Silene vulgaris, Taraxacum officinale, )

2 eggs

1 dkg quagliata/Prescinseua (a kind of white, fresh cheese, similar to ricotta)

50 gr grated Parmesan cheese

a glass of white, dry vine

marjoram

salt

Dough

350 gr flour

1 egg

cold water

10 gr salt

Preparation

You mix pregoggion with eggs, grated Parmesan cheese, marjoram and salt. In this way, you prepare the filling of pansoti. Then, you prepare the dough by mixing the rest of the ingredients. When the dough becomes smooth you can start rolling it. It has to become quite thin, about 3 mm in thickness. Then you cut the small, circles with a glass. Then put a little bit of the filling on each circle and close the pansoto. You can close them in a simple way with a fork or, if you prefer the shape that pansoti have in the zone of Genoa, you can bend them around your finger. In this way, they became a kind of stuffed ring. In the end, you put them in the boiled, salt water. They are ready when they start floating on the water’s surface 😉

As I have written before, pansoti are served with hazelnuts sauce … when you try them in this way you will really fall in love with them. How to prepare the hazelnuts sauce?

Ingredients

20 hazelnuts

a handful of pine nuts

clove of garlic

marjoram

soft, inside of a bread

milk

olive oil

sweet cream

salt

Preparation

The hazelnuts have to be scaled in a hot water and filled out from their skin. After that the hazelnuts, pine nuts, a clove of garlic, soft inside of bread (that has been soaked in milk before) and marjoram. You can mix them in a mortar or in an electric mixer. When all ingredients are mixed well you have to pass it through a sieve. Then you add an olive oil, salt and sweet cream. Mix them again and the sauce is ready! DELICIOUS!

BUON APPETITO 🙂