A popular Emilian saying goes: “par Easter and par Nadel ai vol el tajadell”: the saying applies to Tagliolina, an Emilian dessert made with egg puff pastry stuffed by alternating fine tagliatelle with almonds and sugar, typical of festive Sundays. It is an ancient cake, which would have Renaissance origins: the "fine noodles" that decorate the surface would be a tribute to the blonde hair of Lucrezia Borgia, lady of the Estense Castle in Ferrara. In some Emilian villages it is traditional to eat it on the day of San Biagio, which occurs on February 3, on the same day in which further north it is customary to eat a piece of blessed panettone left over from Christmas, to ward off ailments and protect yourself from sore throats . But its use continues until carnival and Easter.
The recipe for the cake is very simple but for its success the processing that must harmonize tagliatelle, the shortcrust pastry and a mixture of almonds is essential, following the wise advice of grandmother's recipes.
Considered to originate from Molinella in the Bologna area, the only municipality to have registered it as a De.Co. (municipal denomination of origin), the tagliatelle cake is well known in the towns of the Tuscan-Emilian Apennines, but it is also very common in the Ferrara area and even in the province of Mantua (where it is prepared without the shortcrust pastry shell).
There are many versions of this dessert and going outside the region, in Umbria, you can even meet distant relatives of the Emilian tagliolina during the Christmas period: sweet Tagliatelle with walnuts
What we offer to Mondo Food readers to give a touch of novelty to the Easter table, together with traditional sweets, is the work of chef Daniele Persegani, well-known TV face that in the DNA that inherited the gastronomic tradition of the Emilian mother and the Lombard one of birth from a Cremona father.
Cooking teacher at the Hotel Institute of Salsomaggiore Terme, she hosted the television cooking show Casa Alice, was part of the cast of Antonella Clerici's La Prova Del Cuoco on RAI 1, and subsequently of the edition with Elisa Isoardi, then after a one year experience at Detto Fatto alongside Bianca Guaccero, he is currently one of the protagonists of the new program by Antonella Clerici "It's always noon".
The charm of the nostalgia of the grandmother's kitchen in the lowlands of Peppone and Don Camillo
Persegani is a DOC Piacenza established in Castelvetro Piacentino a mainly agricultural village located in the lower Emiliana on the banks of the Po, with a landscape and a climate perfectly described by Guareschi in Don Camillo and Peppone.
As a child he spent his time in the kitchen of his grandmother's inn and watched her spellbound as she rolled out the kilos of egg pasta by hand with an oak rolling pin and sliced the Emilian cured meats, almost with magical rites. From there he developed a passion for cooking and for the traditions that led him to attend the Hotel Management Institute of Salsomaggiore Terme.
He defines himself as nostalgic: “I like to remember the past and my childhood that I spent in the simplicity of a country which, with its pros and cons, has fixed beautiful moments in my memory. It must be for this reason that I love Italian songs from the 70s/80s, Loretta Goggi and Raffaella "Nazionale" just to name a few, they represent myths for me with their versatility, artistic completeness and professionalism not to mention Mina…. the queen!!!”
The desire to recall the traditional cuisine of his grandmother prompted him, together with his sister, to set up the restaurant L'Osteria del Pescatore, a typical restaurant complete with certification from Ascom and the Province of Piacenza where pasta it is still done by hand and the broth with three types of meat!
"My conception of cooking – he says – could be defined as: “tradition but not too much”, in the sense that I like to take the dishes of the past, revisit them and maybe where possible, make them a little current but without distorting the origin too much. I have great respect for the ingredients and materials I use in the kitchen but above all in the kitchen you have to be honest.
If today you were part of one of those immense kitchen brigades with all the roles and hierarchies as it was in the time of Caterina De Medici, my ideal role would be that of Chef Saucier, I love first courses and sauces!!! Stuffed pasta is my ace in the hole, in fact – he is keen to underline this – I close the lean tortelli with the “coda”. His recipe of Mantua-style tagliatelle cake has the scent of memories of the grandmothers' house, above all of their mastery in knowing how to handle pasta and with simple ingredients being able to create appetizing dishes that tempted children and the whole family, indelible memories of a time that was and that we can still relive with satisfaction
The recipe: Mantuan tagliatelle cake
Ingredients
For the pastry:
250 00 grams of flour
125 g of butter
125 g of sugar
3 yolks
the scent of vanilla and lemon peel
For the filling:
200 g of almonds,
200 g of macaroons,
200 grams of sugar,
300 g of fresh egg noodles,
200 gr of butter,
liquor x sweets.
Method
Make the pastry with flour, sugar, butter and vanilla yeast for desserts and let it rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Chop almonds, amaretti and sugar and grated lemon peel, being careful to use only the yellow part all together, add a little liqueur for desserts, form a loaf and leave to rest in the refrigerator.
Prepare the dough with the eggs and flour, and let it rest for a good half hour, then roll it out and make very fine tagliatelle out of it.
Grease a cake pan well, line it with the pastry and alternate layers of tagliatelle, butter and sweet dough, beat the pan well and bake over a very low heat, 130 degrees, for 1 hour and a half.
Et voilà the game is done
