The most celebrated first course in Bergamo’s gastronomic culture is a stuffed pasta, topped with butter, sage and crispy bacon. The filling is meat-based. The pasta, very poor in eggs and therefore rather coarse, was filled with what was available and often from what was left over from previous meals. The dough closed on itself to contain the filling gives different shapes according to tradition sometimes very different by family custom. Conventionally the most typical shape is barchetta (shorts, hence, perhaps the name). Recipe:
Ingredients
for the dough
400 g flour 00
100 g wheat flour
2 eggs (1 to 2)
water to taste. for the filling 125 g dry bread crumbs or softened in milk (or breadsticks, but do not soften either the bread or the breadsticks in milk) 1 egg 75 g Grana Padano 150 g ground base for salami 100 g roasted beef 5 g macaroons
10 g raisins
half a spadona pear in spring-summer or an abbot pear in fall-winter (100 g)
spices to taste: nutmeg, cinnamon, white and black pepper
salt q.b. lemon zest 1 clove garlic 15 g leaves parsley seasoning 120 g butter 12 leaves sage 50 g bacon in strips or small pieces
Procedimento: Preparare la pasta con tutti gli ingredienti e farla riposare in frigorifero avvolta in pellicola per 30 minuti. Per il ripieno il disciplinare della Camera di Commercio prevede l’amalgama a freddo di tutti gli ingredienti, una volta sbriciolati gli amaretti, affettate e tagliate le pere a quadratini piccoli. Tirare la pasta in sfoglia alta 0,6 mm, fare dischi di 6-8 cm e porvi il ripieno. Chiudere i bordi dei casoncelli in modo da ottenere dei semi-cerchi, piegare leggermente il bordo e infossare un poco il centro in modo da dare la forma caratteristica ad ali d’uccello. Cuocere i casoncelli in acqua bollente salata per 7-8 minuti. Condirli con burro nel quale sono stati fatti rosolare salvia e pancetta.