Tagliatelle alla Biellese

This is a pasta recipe from the north, from Piemonte. It’s reminiscent of Pasta Alfredo, which was invented in Rome, but although it is as rich and as easy as Alfredo could wish for, it is its own special thing. The recipe is translated from La Cucina Regionale Italiana… Piemonte e Valle d’Aosta published by La Repubblica, a newspaper.

I served it last of all the four pasta dishes I made for the December 7th supper, because it felt sort of like pasta dessert to me… and I know that doesn’t make any sense at all.

Tagliatelle alla Biellese

serves 4

400 g (almost 1 pound) egg noodles
150 g (5.33 ounces) butter
100 g (3.5 ounces) grated grana cheese, which includes Parmigiano, grana Padano or any aged, hard grating cheese.
4-5 tablespoons milk
generously grated nutmeg

Boil plenty of salted water for cooking the pasta. If you use fresh noodles as we did, they will cook for less than 3 minutes, but if you use dried ones, check the package for the cooking time. Subtract a bit from that time, because you will finish the coking in the sauce.

Melt the butter over low heat in a nice big pan, add the grated cheese and then stir in enough milk to make a smooth and slightly thickened sauce– like heavy cream. Grate nutmeg over it until the perfume of the nutmeg drifts up very nicely into your face. Add salt and pepper to taste. Throw in the cooked and drained pasta and toss the pasta in the suce while it continues over the low heat until it is well covered. Taste and grate more nutmeg if you wish.

A guest asked me which cheese to put over it and I said, “but it IS cheese!” It doesn’t need more cheese…

It’s rich, delicate, wintry. It’s even relatively cheap to make, especially if you make your own pasta, as we did. The amount I made, all inclusive, cost less than 4 euro for 4 people. We followed it with an elaborate and interesting salad.

The recommended wines are Canavese Bianco and Bolgheri Vermentino. I have had Vermentino, but not that one. Both of these recommendations are from the book.