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Soufflé di Tagliarini
My friend and cooking school partner at Cook At Seliano, Baronessa Cecilia Bellelli Baratta, learned this from her mother, Elvira Baratta, who claims to have created the idea of an egg-white lightened baked pasta. (We doubt it. But who would dare to contradict her?) The Baratta family lives in Battipaglia, in the province of Salerno, just south of the city itself, where Cecilia's father was in the tomato packing business. But for the duration of World War II, the family went to Parma, where it was much safer. Elvira still, at 91, cooks many Parmense dishes – her Christmas cappeletti are superb – and, the story goes, the idea for a soufflé of pasta came to her then. On the other hand, whenever I identify a dish with cream sauce and egg pasta as possibly of northern heritage, Cecilia reminds me that northern Italians hardly have a monopoly on a love of bechamel.
We may be making this in our classes at the end of this month, perhaps with the addition of some of the fresh, sweet peas that Cecilia grows on her farm.
Soufflé di Tagliarini
Makes 6 first-course servings
For the béchamel:
4 tablespoon butter
4 tablespoons flour
2 cups whole milk
3/4 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon (do not use a microplane to grate zest)
Juice of 1 lemon
Plus:
4 eggs, separated
1 extra egg white
8 ounces (or 250 grams – 8.8 ounces) dried tagliarini (very fine ribbon egg pasta)
4 tablespoons butter
About 1/2 cup dried breadcrumbs
To prepare the bechamel, heat the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the flour, using a whisk, and let bubble for 2 minutes.
Add the milk while stirring constantly with the whisk. Bring to a simmer, stirring frequently. When simmering, the mixture will be at maximum thickness. Remove from the heat and stir in the Parmigiano. Allow to cool before stirring in the nutmeg, salt, pepper, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Scrape the sauce into a large mixing bowl and set aside to cool. (Or, if you are in a hurry, cool the mixture by placing bowl in another bowl with an ice water bath.)
When the sauce has cooled to merely warm, stir in the egg yolks, mixing thoroughly.
Meanwhile, prepare a 9- by 9- by 2-inch baking dish. Butter it with about a tablespoon of butter. Coat it well with dried (unseasoned) breadcrumbs. (Pour about 1/3 cup of crumbs in the dish and shift them around so they stick to the butter sides of the dish.)
Bring about 3 quarts of water to a rolling boil. Add a tablespoon of salt. Break the pasta into approximately 3-inch lengths. Boil it until only about half done, usually 1 minute and no more than 2. Drain well in a colander. Transfer the pasta back to the pot it was cooked in and toss with 2 tablespoons of the remaining butter. Let the pasta cool slightly.
Stir the cooked pasta into the cooled sauce, mixing thoroughly. (The dish can be made about 2 hours ahead to this point. Place a piece of plastic over the surface of the pasta-sauce mixture and keep at room temperature.)
Preheat the oven to 375-degrees.
In a large bowl, beat the egg whites until they hold stiff peaks.
Carefully fold the egg whites into the pasta-sauce mixture. This may seem difficult since the pasta mixture is so dense. A flexible rubber or silicone spatula will likely be too slippery. A wooden spoon is better. I have used a wooden fork with success: the tines of the fork help incorporate the whites in the pasta. (No matter what you do, the whites will deflate somewhat.) Pour into the prepared pan.
Sprinkle the remaining breadcrumbs (about 3 tablespoons) on the top. Dot with the remaining butter (about 1 tablespoon).
Bake in the preheated 375-degree oven for 30 minutes.
For maximum lightness, serve immediately, cut into squares. Once cooled, the souffle will deflate, but not completely, and it is still very delicious and still much lighter than a conventional baked pasta.
