Fazzoletti with broad beans and pecorino - a seasonal recipe
A simple and delicious spring recipe from Max at Pasetti and Boote welcoming in the first of the seasons’ broad beans. Fazzoletti means handkerchief in Italian and is also one of the easiest and most rewarding fresh pasta shapes to make. These silky ribbons of egg pasta coated in broad bean sauce make an ideal springtime lockdown lunch.
Recipe : Max Pasetti Photography : Silkie Lloyd
Serves 4 as a main course
For the pasta
330g 00'Flour
4 egg yolks
2 whole eggs
For the broad bean sauce
1kg broad beans fresh
1 bunch spring onions
A few basil leaves
100ml extra virgin olive oil
To finish
Handful grated Pecorino
A few reserved broad beans
Few extra torn leaves of basil
To make the dough. Mix the eggs, yolk, and flour in a food processor (or by hand) until it comes together into what looks like bread crumbs. Knead briefly and wrap in cling film to rest for 30 minutes.
Make your broad bean sauce. Boil some salted water. Pick the beans out of their pods and get a bath of cold water ready. Drop the beans into the boiling water for 30 seconds and then transfer into the ice bath to chill. Now the beans should pop out of their skins easily as you do so.
Roughly chop the spring onions and shallow fry in a hot pan using around half of your olive oil with a pinch of salt for 2-3 minutes until the onions soften. Add all but a handful of the peeled beans to the onions and remove from the heat. In a food processor blitz the bean mix with the remaining olive oil and a few basil leaves until smooth. You may need to add a few drops of water. Season with salt and black pepper.
Now to roll the pasta - we’ve used a pasta machine but it’s absolutely possible just using a rolling pin. First line a baking tray with paper and dust with fine semolina. Then shape the pasta with a rolling pin into a rectangle that fits nicely into the machine. Carefully roll the pasta through the rollers starting on the thickest setting, dropping down each time until the last but one thickness. Each time if you feel the pasta is getting sticky, lay the sheet of pasta out flat and carefully rub some flour onto the surface. Once down to the last but one setting cut into more manageable sections (around 30cm long), and allow to dry for 5-10 minutes until the pasta sheets feel like leather. These can just be left on the surface to dry. Next, cut roughly into squares or rectangles around 5cm x 5cm and store on your tray for up to 24 hours refrigerated.
To assemble the dish, get a pan of generously salted boiling water to a rolling boil. Gently heat the broad bean sauce with the broad beans in another pan. Drop the pasta in the water for 1 minute, then transfer the cooked pasta to the pan of beans, retaining some of the pasta water. Toss and coat the pasta in the broad bean sauce - at this stage, you might need to add some pasta water to help coat it.
Serve with a generous grating of pecorino and some freshly torn basil leaves.