Italian Calabria Ferretto Pasta with Ragù | Maccarruni al Ferretto con Ragù Calabrese
Updated: Oct 24
The ferretto is a length of iron wire, square in section, about as thick as a bicycle spoke. In Calabria it is the only tool a pasta needs. A rope of semola dough is laid across it, pressed with the flat of the palm and rolled once, and what comes off is a hollow tube with a seam down its length. No machine makes that shape.
Maccarruni al ferretto, known further south as fileja, are the Calabrian answer to holding a meat sauce without egg, press or expense. The hollow centre fills with ragù, and the rough surface, dragged against iron rather than cut by a bronze die, grips it. In Catanzaro and across the Vibonese the shape has been made the same way for so long that the ferretto is still sold in ironmongers alongside nails.
The ragù underneath is pork with heat in it, cooked slowly enough for the meat to give up its gelatine into the tomato. The two meet in a wide pan with a measure of starchy cooking water, and the last minute is where the dish is actually made.
Yield: 4 servings. Prep: 45 minutes. Rest: 30 minutes. Shaping: 40 minutes. Cook: 2 hours 30 minutes. Total: about 4 hours. Difficulty: advanced. Course: primo. Region: Calabria, Catanzaro and the Vibonese.
The Story
Calabria has never been a region of egg pasta. Eggs were needed elsewhere and hard wheat grew well on the Ionian side, so the pasta of the interior was semola and water, worked by hand and shaped on whatever was available. Around Catanzaro that meant a knitting needle or a straightened length of broom wire, and the name of the pasta became the name of the tool: maccheroni made on the iron.
The same shape carries different names within an hour of driving. Around Vibo Valentia it is fileja, in the Sila filateddri, and the length changes with the village. What does not change is the method and the occasion. This was Sunday pasta, made by several people around one table, because shaping four portions takes forty minutes and twenty takes an afternoon.
The ragù belongs to the Calabrian pork tradition rather than the northern beef one. Most households kept a pig, killed it in winter and turned it into sausage, soppressata, capocollo and 'nduja. The ragù used the cuts that did not go into curing, cooked long with onion, red wine and tomato, and heated with the local peperoncino. Where a Bolognese ragù is built on milk and restraint, this one is built on fat, chilli and time.
Ingredients
For the pasta
Durum wheat semola rimacinata, 2 1/2 cups (400 g)
Warm water, about 190°F (88°C), 1 cup (240 ml), plus a little more if needed
Fine sea salt, 1/2 tsp (3 g)
Extra semola for dusting the tray and the board
For the ragù
Pork shoulder, boneless, cut into 1 inch cubes, 1 lb (450 g)
Pork ribs, cut into single bones, 3/4 lb (340 g)
Italian pork sausage, coarse, casing removed, 5 oz (140 g)
Extra virgin olive oil, 3 tbsp (45 ml)
Yellow onion, finely chopped, 1 medium
Garlic cloves, lightly crushed, 2
Dried Calabrian peperoncino, crumbled, 1 tsp (2 g), or to taste
Dry red wine, 3/4 cup (180 ml)
Tomato passata, 3 cups (720 ml)
Tomato paste, 1 tbsp (16 g)
Bay leaf, 1
Fresh basil, 4 leaves
Fine sea salt, 1 1/2 tsp (9 g), plus more to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
For finishing
Coarse sea salt for the pasta water, about 2 tbsp (30 g)
Pecorino Crotonese, finely grated, 3/4 cup (75 g)
'Nduja, 2 tsp (12 g), optional
Extra virgin olive oil, 1 tbsp (15 ml), for finishing
Preparation
Step 1
Mix and knead the semola dough. Mound the semola on a board, dissolve the salt in the warm water and add it in stages, drawing the flour in with your fingertips. Water at around 190°F (88°C) gelatinises the starch on contact and gives a dough that rolls into ropes without tearing. Knead a full 10 minutes with the heel of the hand. It should finish firm, smooth and only faintly tacky, closer to modelling clay than bread dough. Wrap and rest it 30 minutes.
Step 2
Roll the ropes. Cut off a quarter of the dough and keep the rest wrapped, since semola crusts quickly in open air. Roll it under flat palms into a rope about as thick as a pencil, working from the centre outwards, and cut lengths of about 3 inches. Keep the board only lightly dusted: loose semola stops the dough gripping and the rope slides instead of lengthening.
Step 3
Shape the maccarruni on the ferretto. Lay one length of dough diagonally across the wire, set your palm flat over it and roll forwards once with even light pressure, then back. The dough wraps around the wire and stretches to roughly twice its length. Slide it off by pinching one end and pulling the wire out, never by pulling the pasta. Set the pieces on a semola dusted tray, not touching, so the hollow stays open.
Step 4
Dry and hold the shaped pasta. Leave the tray uncovered at room temperature for 30 minutes to an hour while the ragù finishes. A short air dry firms the surface and stops the pieces welding together, but do not dry them to brittleness, since pasta this thick needs some flexibility to survive the boil.
Step 5
Brown the pork. Heat the olive oil in a heavy pot over medium high heat and brown the shoulder and the ribs in batches, turning so every face colours. Do not crowd the pot: meat that steams gives a ragù with no depth and no later simmering recovers it. Take the pieces out, crumble in the sausage and cook until its fat runs.
Step 6
Build the base and reduce the wine. Lower the heat, add the onion and garlic and cook 8 to 10 minutes until soft and golden, scraping the fond off the bottom as the onion releases water. Add the peperoncino and stir 30 seconds so it blooms in the fat. Pour in the wine and reduce until the raw alcohol smell has gone and the pan is almost dry, about 4 minutes.
Step 7
Simmer the ragù slowly. Return the pork and its juices, stir in the tomato paste, then the passata, bay leaf and salt. Bring to a bare simmer, cover partly and cook 2 to 2 1/2 hours with the surface barely moving. A hard simmer drives the fat into the sauce and turns it cloudy and heavy, while a slow one leaves a clear orange fat on top that you can spoon off or stir back. It is ready when the shoulder falls apart under a spoon.
Step 8
Finish the ragù and pull the meat. Lift out the ribs, strip the meat from the bones and return it, discarding bones and bay leaf. Break the shoulder up roughly with a wooden spoon: this ragù should be shreds and lumps, not a smooth sauce. Tear in the basil, taste for salt and heat, grind in pepper, and keep it hot but off the boil.
Step 9
Cook the pasta and finish it in the pan. Bring 5 quarts (4.7 liters) of water to a rolling boil and salt it with about 2 tablespoons only once boiling. Pasta this thick takes 4 to 6 minutes, so start tasting at 4. Ladle 2 cups (480 ml) of the water into a jug before draining. Lift the pasta into a wide pan holding two thirds of the ragù, add a ladle of water and toss over medium heat for a full minute, adding more in small amounts until the sauce turns glossy and clings. Off the heat, add half the pecorino and the olive oil and toss again until the cheese disappears into the sauce.
Plating
Warm the plates properly, because a cold plate drops the temperature within seconds and the sauce sets on it. Use a shallow bowl or a plate with a broad well, since the ragù needs somewhere to gather.
Portion with tongs rather than a spoon, lifting the maccarruni so they land in a loose nest with the tubes lying roughly the same way. Spoon a little reserved ragù over the centre so the meat is visible, and let some pasta stay bare. Everything buried under sauce looks like a stew, and the point of the shape is that you can see it.
Finish with the rest of the pecorino grated at the table rather than in the kitchen, a turn of black pepper and, if you use it, the smallest smear of 'nduja stirred into the surface where it will melt. Serve immediately: two or three minutes on the pass and the sauce goes from glossy to sticky.
Professional Technique
The technical heart of this dish is the hydration of the semola dough, and it separates a pasta that rolls cleanly on the ferretto from one that fights you. Semola rimacinata is milled from durum wheat, high in protein but low in the elastic gluten a soft wheat gives, so a cold water dough tears when stretched. Water at around 190°F (88°C) partly gelatinises the starch on the particle surfaces, giving a dough that is plastic rather than springy. It stretches to twice its length around the wire and stays there.
The second technique is the rolling itself, a single movement and not a repeated one. Pressure comes from the flat of the palm across the whole length at once, not from the fingers, and the roll goes forward once and back once. Roll repeatedly and the seam closes, the hollow disappears and you have a solid spaghetto. The dough must grip the board and the wire at the same time, which is why the board carries only the lightest dusting.
The third is the mantecatura, which with a hollow pasta does something particular. Tossing for a full minute with starchy water forces sauce into the open channel of each tube, the entire reason the shape exists. The emulsion between the rendered pork fat, the pecorino and the starch is what holds it there, and it needs both heat and movement.
Texture and Moisture Control
Fresh semola pasta this thick cooks from the outside in, so the doneness you want is tender through the wall with the faintest resistance at the seam where the dough is doubled. Start tasting at 4 minutes and remember it keeps cooking in the pan for another minute, so pull it a shade early. Overcooked maccarruni collapse and the hollow closes up, losing both the texture and the function of the shape.
Salt the water only once it reaches a rolling boil, about 2 tablespoons for 5 quarts, and never add oil. Oil coats the pasta and stops the sauce adhering, the opposite of what a pasta made to grip sauce needs. The cooking water is the second seasoning and the only source of the starch that binds the sauce, so reserve more than you think you need and keep it hot.
The ragù has the opposite problem. Two and a half hours at a bare simmer concentrates the gelatine from the ribs, and a sauce that looked correct in the pot is noticeably tighter by the time the pasta joins it. Hold it looser than the finished texture you want and use the cooking water to bring the two together. If the fat separates in the pan, a splash of that water and hard tossing pulls it back, because the starch acts as the emulsifier.
Professional Mise en Place
This is a long dish with two independent preparations and a ninety second finish. Both the ragù and the shaping can be done well ahead.
Equipment and tools
Ferretto, or a square section iron wire about 10 inches long
Large wooden board for kneading and rolling
Heavy pot with a lid for the ragù, 6 quart (5.7 liters)
Wide sauté pan for finishing, large enough to toss freely
Two trays dusted with semola for the shaped pasta
Large pot for boiling and a jug for the reserved cooking water
Prepared ahead
Ragù cooked and refrigerated, up to 3 days ahead, or frozen for 3 months
Pasta shaped and air dried, up to 4 hours ahead on a semola dusted tray
Pecorino grated close to service and kept covered
Peperoncino crumbled and pork cut and weighed before the pot goes on
Service setup
Ragù hot in the wide pan, held just below a simmer
Pasta water at a rolling boil and salted, with a jug ready for the reserved water
Plates warming, wide with a broad well
Grated pecorino, olive oil, pepper mill and 'nduja lined up at the pass
Chef Tips
If you have no ferretto, a thin steel knitting needle or a straightened bicycle spoke works as well. Avoid a round polished surface such as a wooden skewer: the dough slips instead of gripping and the tube will not form.
Make the ragù the day before. It is better on the second day, when the fat has set on top and the chilli has spread evenly through the sauce instead of sitting in hot pockets. It also turns a four hour dish into a one hour one.
Shape the pasta in company. Forty minutes alone at the board is tedious and the last pieces are always worse than the first, because the dough dries as it waits. Two people halve the time and the batch comes out consistent, which is why this was food for Sundays.
Buy Pecorino Crotonese if you can find it, since it is the cheese this dish was built around and sharper than a Roman pecorino. Grate it finely and add it off the heat: dropped into a pan still over flame, any hard sheep cheese seizes into strings.
Common Mistakes
Making the dough with cold water. Semola needs hot water to become plastic enough to stretch around the wire. A cold water dough is springy, tears as it lengthens and pulls back into a stubby tube, and extra kneading does not fix it.
Rolling the ferretto back and forth repeatedly. Each extra pass presses the seam further closed until the hollow disappears. One firm roll forward and one back is the whole movement, with the flat of the palm across the entire length at once.
Crowding the pot when browning the pork. Meat packed into a pot releases water faster than it evaporates, so it steams grey and the ragù ends up thin rather than deep. Work in batches with space between the pieces.
Boiling the ragù rather than simmering it. A hard boil drives the rendered fat into the tomato as a cloudy emulsion and gives a greasy sauce. Keep the surface barely moving and let the fat sit clear on top where you can control it.
Draining the pasta and pouring the sauce over it. This is the error that wastes the shape. Without the minute of tossing with starchy water, nothing enters the hollow centre and you have sauce sitting on the outside of plain pasta.
Adding the pecorino over direct heat. Hard sheep cheese seizes above about 175°F (80°C) and knots into strings that never redistribute. Take the pan off the flame, let it settle for a few seconds, then add the cheese and toss.
Wine Pairing
Cirò Rosso Classico DOC: The regional answer, made from Gaglioppo on the Ionian coast an hour from where this pasta is shaped. Its tannin is fine and dusty rather than grippy, which suits a sauce carrying this much rendered pork fat, and the sour cherry and dried herb fruit sits directly against the tomato. There is acidity enough to reset the palate without fighting the chilli.
Aglianico del Vulture Superiore DOCG: From the volcanic slopes over the Basilicata border, the choice when the ragù has been reduced hard. Aglianico brings firmer tannin and darker fruit than Gaglioppo, with a smoky mineral edge that meets the browned pork rather than the tomato. Give it a decade or a decanter, because a young Superiore will overwhelm the pasta itself.
Etna Rosso DOC: Nerello Mascalese grown on volcanic sand across the strait, pale in the glass and far more structured than its colour suggests. The high acidity cuts the fat of the sausage and the shoulder, while its red fruit and ash character keeps the chilli in proportion. Serve it at around 61°F (16°C).
Cerasuolo di Vittoria DOCG: The blend of Nero d'Avola and Frappato from south eastern Sicily, and the lightest wine here. Frappato gives a bright, almost floral lift that works against the peperoncino, since alcohol intensifies the burn while freshness relieves it. A good choice if you have been generous with the 'nduja.
Primitivo di Manduria DOC: From the Salento, riper and rounder than the others, with soft tannin and warm plummy fruit that flatters the sweetness the onion and the long cooked tomato have developed. Choose a fresher bottling rather than one pushed to high alcohol, because heat in the glass and heat in the sauce compound each other quickly.
Storage & Reheating
The ragù is the part worth storing. Cooled quickly and kept airtight, it holds 4 days in the refrigerator and freezes for 3 months, and it improves after a night in the cold. Reheat it covered over low heat with a splash of water, stirring, and never let it boil.
Uncooked shaped pasta holds on its semola dusted tray for 4 hours at room temperature, or freezes well. Spread the pieces so they do not touch, freeze until hard, then bag them. Cook from frozen with 1 to 2 minutes added, and never thaw first, since they turn sticky and lose the hollow.
Dressed pasta should be eaten the day it is made. Refrigerate leftovers for up to 2 days and reheat in a wide pan over medium heat with 2 or 3 tablespoons of water, tossing until the sauce loosens and coats again. A microwave overcooks pasta that is already cooked and leaves the sauce separated. Expect a softer bite whatever you do.
Nutrition
Per serving, based on 4 portions:
Calories: 890 kcal
Total Fat: 38 g
Saturated Fat: 13 g
Trans Fat: 0.3 g
Unsaturated Fat: 23 g
Cholesterol: 115 mg
Sodium: 1150 mg
Total Carbohydrates: 89 g
Fiber: 7 g
Total Sugars: 11 g
Added Sugars: 0 g
Protein: 48 g
Lactose: 0.3 g
Principal micronutrients: thiamine, niacin, vitamin B6, vitamin B12, iron, zinc, selenium, calcium, potassium, lycopene
These figures are estimates. Most of the salt in the pasta water is discarded, and the fat total swings with how much clear pork fat you spoon off the ragù.
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