In our zone, on the border between Umbria and Tuscany, this homemade pasta is called “pici”, while in other places it is known as “umbricelli” or “pinci”.
Once the pici were made without eggs, so they were considered as the poor men’s pasta. The pici’s form is lengthened and irregular, they seems a bigger version of spaghetti.
The traditional condiments of the pici are the wild game’s sauces (boar meat and “nana”, that means duck in the dialect of Trasimeno) or the porcini mushrooms, but they can also be seasoned with many other sauces.
Ingredients:
– 1 kg flour
– 2 eggs
– 2 spoons of extravirgin olive oil
– 1 pinch of salted water
Preparation:
Pour the flour on the pastry board, mix the eggs, add the extra virgin olive oil, a pinch of salt and lukewarm water. Mix slowly, incorporating the flour until you get an homogeneous mixture. Work it with the palm of the hands and let rest the pasta for at least 30 minutes, leaving it covered by a clean cloth.
After that, stretch the pasta with a thin rolling pin until you have a phyllo dough, rub some oil on the table and on the pastry, cut a strip of pasta and with the palm of the hands form a long spaghetto.
Repeat this operation until you get the quantity of pasta that you want. Then stretch the pici on a clean rag and sprinkled of semolino, cover them with a cloth and put them in a fresh place until they are ready for the cooking.
Cook them in abundant salty water, watching out that it starts immediately to boil after you have thrown the pici and checking the cooking every now and then.
After the draining, season with the sauce that you prefer, as you do with the other types of pasta.
Buon Appetito !