Pizzoccheri della Valtellina

Today I will talk about a typical recipe of our mountains and that we sometimes cook during the cold season.
Pizzoccheri is a pasta that looks like short tagliatelle, but they are made of buckwheat, so they are brown.
Valtellina is a region in the mountains of Lombardy, north of Brescia, to give you a rough idea.
Manu’s parents went to Valtellina last summer and they brought some handmade Pizzoccheri for us. Usually we can find them also in the supermarket, but in a more “industrial” version…
It’s very easy to make Pizzoccheri.
Take a small savoy cabbage, wash and cut in small pieces its leaves.
Peel two medium potatoes and cut them in small cubes.
Fill half of a high pot with water and cook till it starts boiling. Add a spoon of salt, then add savoy cabbage and potatoes.
Let it cook for about 45 minutes till the vegetables get soft, then add pizzoccheri and cook for another 10 minutes.
In the mean time you will cut in small pieces a melting cheese, here we use Stelvio, or Fontina, or Valtellina, anyway the important thing is that it has to be a cheese that can easily melt.
In a small pan on small fire, melt about 40gr of butter with a couple of chopped sage leaves. This operation must be done at the very end, because the butter must not get brown.
When the Pizzoccheri are ready, drain the water away and put this mix of vegetables and pasta in a pot, adding the cheese cubes, some grated Parmigiano cheese, pepper and the melted butter with sage.
Mix everything together till you see that the cheese is all melted and serve immediately, accompanying with red wine.
In a cold winter day, if you close your eyes, you will have the feeling you are eating somewhere in the mountains, in a wooden cottage, closed to a warm stove…