"Cresc Tajat", a polenta-based pasta dish from the La Marche region in Italy. A "poor people's" food, invented to find a use for polenta leftovers, mixing them with flour and a bit of water and making Maltagilati - "badly cut" pasta, another genius use of leftovers, where the trimmings of an otherwise "good looking" pasta are being used as a dish on their own.
Course main
Prep Time 30minutes
Cook Time 30minutes
Total Time 1hour
Servings 4
Ingredients
For the Cresc Tajat:
* Even though this recipe was originally developed for leftover polentawe made it “from scratch”, which we’ve also seen other people do.
100ginstant polenta
200gflour
good pinch of salt
about 80ml hot water
For the Ceci:
3tbspolive oil
1sprig of rosemarychopped
5-6leavesof sage
1fresh chilisliced
1small red onionsliced thin
2garlic clovessliced thin
5anchovy fillets
1tbspbaby capers
1tbsphot pepper pastetomato paste is fine too
½glass of white wine
1can chickpeasdrained
1can diced tomatoes
zest of 1 lemon
handful basil leaves
a handful of parsleychopped
Instructions
To start, mix together some polenta, flour, and salt. Then, slowly add water, kneading it in until you have a dry, springy dough. Pro tip: don't add too much water at once or you'll end up with a soupy mess. Mix for about 3-4 minutes until the dough roughly holds its shape. Cover the dough and let it chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Now comes the fun part: rolling out the dough. Use a rolling pin to get it into a shape that will fit in your pasta machine. And here's where things can get a bit tricky. If the dough is too dry, don't panic! Just dip your fingertips in water, tap the dough, and fold it in on itself. Keep doing this until you get the right consistency.
Roll the dough through the pasta machine on the first setting, then fold it into thirds and roll it again. Repeat this 2-3 times until the dough holds together nicely without too many odd edges. Then, move on to the 2nd and 4th settings, stopping at 5 or 6 depending on how thick you want your diamonds to be.
Now, it's time to cut your dough into diamond shapes using a pizza or dough cutter or a knife. And here's where you get to let your creative side shine. Make them as big or as small as you like!
Cook your diamonds in a pot of boiling salted water. But first, make the sauce!
First things first, heat up some olive oil in a pan and toss in some rosemary, sage, chili, garlic and onion. Saute it up for about 3-4 minutes until it's nice and soft, but be careful not to burn the garlic.
Once your veggies are softened, it's time to add in the real flavor bombs: anchovy, capers and pepper paste. Stir it all together, breaking down the anchovy and letting that pepper paste caramelize to perfection.
Pour in the wine and let it cook down for aout 3 minutes, then add in some chickpeas and canned tomatoes. Let everything simmer on medium-low heat for about 15 minutes, letting all those amazing flavors meld together into a glorious sauce.
Finally, it's time to add in your cooked pasta. Toss it together with a splash of the pasta water to get that perfect coating, and finish it off with so