Italian Valtellina Buckwheat Pasta | Pizzoccheri della Valtellina
Pizzoccheri are the only Italian pasta most people can identify by colour alone. The grey brown of buckwheat gives them away, and so does the way they arrive at the table: never twirled, never neat, but heaped in a heavy layer with potato and cabbage caught between the strands and melted Casera running through the whole thing under a slick of garlic butter.
The dish comes from Teglio, a village on the sunny terraced side of the Valtellina in upper Lombardy, and it is codified there. The Accademia del Pizzocchero di Teglio fixed the proportions decades ago and they are worth following, because this is a recipe where the ratios of flour, cheese and butter do all the work and small changes wreck it.
What follows is that version. Buckwheat and a little wheat flour, a short rest, a coarse hand cut, potatoes and cabbage boiled in the same water as the pasta, two cheeses layered rather than stirred, and butter taken exactly to the point where garlic perfumes it without burning. Nothing is added to improve it because nothing needs to be.
Yield: 4 generous servings. Prep: 45 minutes. Rest: 30 minutes. Cook: 25 minutes. Total: about 1 hour 40 minutes. Difficulty: intermediate. Course: primo piatto. Region: Lombardy, Valtellina.
The Story
Buckwheat is not a cereal and it is not native to the Alps. It reached the Valtellina from the east in the sixteenth century and took hold because it did what wheat could not: it ripened in roughly ninety days, all the growing season a valley at that altitude offers, and it tolerated poor stony ground. Within a few generations the valley ate it in every form, as polenta taragna, as sciatt, and as a pasta rolled out with whatever wheat flour a household could afford to add.
Teglio claims the dish and has the better argument. The village sits on a broad south facing terrace above the Adda, and its name is said to survive in the word Valtellina itself. The Accademia del Pizzocchero was founded there in 1970 to fix the recipe and defend it, and the quantities it set down, four parts buckwheat to one part wheat, and butter and cheese in proportions that look extravagant on paper, are still the reference point.
The cheese half of the story is Valtellina Casera DOP, a semi cooked cow milk cheese matured at least seventy days in the valley. It is made from partly skimmed milk, because the cream went to butter, and that lower fat content is why it melts into soft threads rather than an oily pool. Grana Padano goes beside it for salt and savour, and the potatoes and cabbage were never a garnish but the cheap bulk that made a little flour feed a family.
Ingredients
For the pasta
Buckwheat flour, 3 1/4 cups (400 g)
All purpose flour, 3/4 cup (100 g)
Water, lukewarm, about 1 cup (240 ml)
Fine sea salt, 1/2 tsp (3 g)
For the vegetables
Waxy potatoes, 9 oz (250 g), peeled and cut in pieces 1/2 inch (1.5 cm) across
Savoy cabbage, 7 oz (200 g), cut in ribbons 1 inch (2.5 cm) wide
Water, 5 qt (4.7 l)
Coarse salt, 2 tbsp (36 g), for the cooking water
For the cheese
Valtellina Casera DOP, 9 oz (250 g), rind removed, cut in thin slices
Grana Padano, grated, 5 oz (150 g)
For the butter
Unsalted butter, 7 oz (200 g)
Garlic cloves, peeled and lightly crushed, 3
Sage leaves, 6, optional
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Preparation
Mixing the buckwheat dough
Combine the two flours and the salt on a board or in a wide bowl and add the lukewarm water in stages, working it in with your fingers. Buckwheat has no gluten, so the dough never becomes elastic and never should: aim for a firm, slightly rough mass that just holds together when pressed. Knead for 5 minutes only. Warm water helps the starch hydrate and makes the dough far easier to handle than cold water does.
Resting the dough
Wrap the dough and leave it at room temperature for 30 minutes. This is not gluten development, since there is almost none to develop; it is hydration. The buckwheat particles need time to take up the water evenly, and a rested dough rolls without cracking at the edges while an unrested one tears into shards. Do not refrigerate it, which stiffens the fat free dough and makes it brittle.
Rolling the sheet
Roll the dough on a lightly floured board to a thickness of about 1/8 inch (3 mm). Work outward from the centre and turn the sheet often. It will not stretch like a wheat dough and will crack if you force it thin, so stop at 3 mm rather than chasing transparency. If the edges split, press them back together with damp fingers and carry on.
Cutting the pizzoccheri
Cut the sheet into strips roughly 3 inches (7 cm) wide, stack two or three loosely, and cut across them into ribbons about 1/2 inch (1 cm) wide. The finished pieces are short and wide, closer to a stubby tagliatella than to anything long. Cut them by hand and leave them slightly irregular, because the uneven edges are what hold the butter and cheese. Dust them with buckwheat flour and spread them on a tray so they do not stick.
Setting the water and starting the potatoes
Bring the 5 qt (4.7 l) of water to a rolling boil and add the coarse salt, a full two tablespoons. The water has to be properly salted because it seasons the pasta, the potatoes and the cabbage all at once, and because the buckwheat itself is bland. Put the potatoes in first and boil them for 5 minutes on their own; they need the longest and they release starch that will help bind the finished dish.
Adding cabbage and pasta
Add the cabbage ribbons and boil for 3 minutes more, then slide in the pizzoccheri. From that moment count 6 to 8 minutes, tasting from minute 5. Fresh buckwheat pasta cooks fast and the al dente point is narrow: the strand should be tender with a faint firmness in the middle and no chalky core. A minute too long and it begins to fall apart, because there is no gluten holding it together.
Browning the butter with garlic
While the pasta cooks, melt the butter in a small pan over low heat with the crushed garlic and the sage if you are using it. Let it foam quietly for 4 to 5 minutes until the milk solids turn hazelnut brown and the garlic is deep gold. Take it off the heat at that point and keep it warm. Burnt garlic turns the whole dish acrid and cannot be corrected, so pull the pan early rather than late.
Layering and serving
Lift the pasta and vegetables out with a spider, letting them drain but not dry, and reserve a cup of the cooking water. Put a layer in a warmed deep dish, cover with slices of Casera and a scatter of Grana Padano, and repeat until everything is used, finishing with cheese. Pour the hot garlic butter over the top, grind on black pepper, and let it stand 2 minutes so the Casera melts. Fold it through once, loosening with a spoonful of cooking water if it looks tight, and serve at once.
Plating
Pizzoccheri are served hot and rustic. Use deep bowls warmed to around 150°F (65°C), because Casera sets into rubber the moment it meets a cold surface and there is no recovering it. Spoon rather than tong, keeping the strands loosely heaped so the cheese threads stay visible rather than compressed into a cake.
Make sure every portion carries all three elements: pasta, a few pieces of potato and some cabbage. Finish with a last grating of Grana Padano and a turn of black pepper at the table, and nothing else. No parsley, no oil, no cream. Serve immediately, since the dish is at its best in the first five minutes and declines steadily afterwards.
Professional Technique
Everything difficult about this dish comes from one fact: buckwheat contains no gluten. The four to one ratio of buckwheat to wheat flour exists to supply just enough gluten to hold the sheet together while keeping the flavour firmly buckwheat. Push the wheat higher and you get an elastic dough that is easier to work but tastes of nothing; go to pure buckwheat and the sheet cannot be lifted off the board in one piece.
Cooking pasta, potato and cabbage in the same water is the second technique and it is not laziness. The potatoes release starch that thickens the water, the cabbage gives it a faint sweetness, and the pasta cooks in that seasoned starchy liquid rather than plain water. This is why a spoonful of the same water is the only thing you ever add to loosen the finished dish.
The third is the layering, which replaces mantecatura. Casera cannot be stirred into hot pasta like a hard grating cheese: worked too hard it strings and then breaks. Laid in slices between hot layers it melts from residual heat alone, in about 2 minutes, and a single gentle fold at the end distributes it without shearing the curd. The butter goes on last and hottest, driving that melt from above.
Texture and Moisture Control
The finished dish should be rich but loose, with strands that separate on the fork. Three things push it the wrong way. Overcooked pasta collapses into fragments because there is no gluten network to hold it. Over drained pasta makes the cheese seize into a solid mass. Over stirred cheese strings and then splits, leaving butter on the surface and rubber underneath.
The starch in the cooking water is the corrective for all three. Lift the pasta out wet rather than draining it in a colander, and keep a cup of the water beside you. If the layers look tight when you fold them, a spoonful at a time brings the whole thing back to a glossy, barely fluid state. Buckwheat sheds a lot of starch, so that water is unusually effective here.
Temperature is the other control. Casera melts smoothly at around 140°F (60°C) and begins to separate well before boiling. Layering it into hot pasta off the heat, rather than returning the pan to the stove, keeps it in that window. If the dish must wait even two minutes, cover it and leave it alone rather than reheating, which is what turns a good pizzoccheri into an oily one.
Professional Mise en Place
This is a fast assembly after a slow preparation. The pasta can be made hours ahead, but once the pizzoccheri hit the water everything happens inside ten minutes.
Equipment and tools
Large pot, 6 qt (5.7 l) or bigger, and a spider skimmer
Long rolling pin and a wide board
Sharp knife for cutting the ribbons by hand
Small heavy saucepan for the butter
Deep warmed serving dish and warmed bowls
Prepared ahead
Dough mixed and rested, up to 3 hours ahead at room temperature
Pizzoccheri cut and spread on a floured tray, up to 2 hours ahead
Potatoes peeled and cut, held in cold water
Cabbage cut into ribbons and kept cold
Casera sliced and Grana Padano grated, kept covered
Service setup
Water at a rolling boil and properly salted before anything goes in
Butter pan ready on low heat with the garlic
Cup set aside to catch the cooking water
Serving dish and plates warming to around 150°F (65°C)
Everyone at the table before the pasta goes in
Chef Tips
Buy buckwheat flour that is stone ground and recently milled, and smell it before you use it. The germ is high in oil and goes rancid faster than any wheat flour, and a stale bag gives the pasta a bitter edge that the butter and cheese only amplify. Keep it in the refrigerator once opened.
Use waxy potatoes, not floury ones. A waxy variety holds its shape through eight minutes at a rolling boil and still gives up enough starch to help the sauce. A floury potato disintegrates and turns the dish into a heavy mash with pasta somewhere inside it.
If Valtellina Casera is unavailable, a young Bitto or a mild semi cooked Alpine cheese of similar age works. What does not work is Fontina, which is fatter and melts to a very different texture, or mozzarella, which brings water and stringiness and nothing else. Never substitute the Grana Padano with a pre grated blend.
In late autumn the valley uses coste, the ribbed chard that grows there, instead of savoy cabbage, and in early summer green beans appear. Both are traditional and both work. Keep the weight the same at 7 oz (200 g) and cut the boiling time to 2 minutes for chard.
Common Mistakes
Using only buckwheat flour. Without the wheat there is no gluten at all and the sheet cannot be rolled or lifted in one piece. The four to one ratio is the minimum wheat that holds it together, and it is there for structure rather than flavour.
Rolling the dough too thin. Buckwheat sheets tear well before they reach the thinness of an egg pasta. Stop at about 1/8 inch (3 mm): thinner ribbons break apart in the water and disappear into the potatoes.
Draining everything in a colander. Pouring the whole pot away takes with it the starchy water that binds the dish and leaves the pasta too dry to carry the cheese. Lift the pasta and vegetables out with a spider and keep a cup of the water.
Stirring the Casera into the pan. Worked hard in direct heat the cheese strings, then splits and releases its fat. Layer it between hot pasta, let residual heat do the melting, and fold once at the very end.
Letting the garlic burn in the butter. The line between deep gold and bitter is about thirty seconds, and once crossed it flavours the entire dish. Keep the heat low, watch the colour, and take the pan off before you think you need to.
Wine Pairing
Valtellina Superiore DOCG: The dish and the wine come from the same terraces, and the match is as close to automatic as Italian pairing gets. Nebbiolo grown here, locally called Chiavennasca, is lighter and more perfumed than in Piedmont, with sour cherry fruit and a firm acidic spine that cuts straight through 7 oz (200 g) of butter and two cheeses. Its fine tannin tidies the palate between forkfuls.
Sforzato di Valtellina DOCG: Dry despite being made from grapes dried on racks through the winter, and the valley bottle for a cold night. The extra concentration and alcohol give it the weight to stand against the richness without being smothered, while dried fig and tobacco notes echo the nutty side of the buckwheat. Serve it in small pours, because it is powerful and the dish is already generous.
Franciacorta DOCG: The Lombard sparkling answer and the one to reach for when the table wants contrast rather than harmony. Bottle fermented acidity and a persistent fine bead scrub the butter fat off the palate, and the bready autolytic character sits comfortably beside melted Casera. A non vintage brut is enough; nothing older is needed here.
Gattinara DOCG: Another mountain Nebbiolo, from volcanic soils in northern Piedmont, and a fine alternative when Valtellina bottles are hard to find. It is more structured and more savoury than the Valtellina wines, with tar, dried rose and a distinct iron note that works well with the earthiness of buckwheat. Give it a few years and half an hour open.
Lugana DOC: The white option, from the southern shore of Lake Garda, and better suited to this dish than most Italian whites. Turbiana gives a broad textured wine with almond and citrus and enough body to meet the cheese, while its saline finish keeps the richness in check. Serve it at around 50°F (10°C), not colder, or the texture disappears.
Storage & Reheating
Uncooked pizzoccheri keep best. Spread the ribbons on a floured tray, refrigerate uncovered for an hour until the surface dries, then bag them and keep them refrigerated for 2 days or frozen for 2 months. Cook them straight from frozen and add a minute. This is the only part worth making ahead in quantity.
The finished dish keeps refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 2 days, though it is markedly better on the first day. Reheat it in a covered dish in the oven at 300°F (150°C) for 15 minutes with 2 tablespoons of water or milk added, which rehydrates the pasta and helps the cheese soften again. A pan on the stove overworks the cheese and a microwave separates it.
Do not freeze the assembled dish. The potatoes turn grainy, the cabbage goes limp and the cheese separates irreversibly on thawing, leaving butter on the surface and a dry mass beneath. If you have leftovers and want to keep them longer than two days, the honest answer is that you cannot.
Nutrition
Per serving, based on 4 generous portions:
Calories: 980 kcal
Total Fat: 62 g
Saturated Fat: 38 g
Trans Fat: 1.6 g
Unsaturated Fat: 20 g
Cholesterol: 165 mg
Sodium: 1150 mg
Total Carbohydrates: 74 g
Fiber: 8 g
Total Sugars: 4 g
Added Sugars: 0 g
Protein: 34 g
Lactose: 1 g
Principal micronutrients: calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, manganese, vitamin A, vitamin K, vitamin B12, zinc
These figures are estimates and the portion is deliberately generous, as it is in the valley. Halving it gives a more usual primo. Most of the sodium comes from the two cheeses rather than the cooking water.
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