Passatelli in brodo
A dish from Emilia-Romagna with no flour in it: the noodles are made from breadcrumbs, parmesan and eggs in equal parts. This is a soup of the thrifty kitchen, a way of using up stale bread. The whole technique comes down to one tool — the dough is pressed through a potato ricer straight into simmering broth, and it cooks in three minutes.
Your own work in that: 5 min.
- Dough 15 min
- Resting 30 min
- Cooking 5 min
- Serving 5 min
Step by step
0 / 7 doneGrate the parmesan fresh and fine
Grate the parmesan finely, immediately before use. Ready-grated cheese from a bag is dry and does not bind the dough — the passatelli then disintegrate into grains in the broth.
Ingredients: 150 g breadcrumbs · 150 g parmesan · 4 pcs eggs · ½ tsp nutmeg · ½ pcs lemon · ½ tsp salt · ½ tsp black pepper
Knead a firm dough
Mix the breadcrumbs with the parmesan, nutmeg, lemon zest, salt and pepper, break in the eggs and knead for about 5 minutes into a firm, slightly moist dough. If it crumbles, add a spoonful of broth; if it sticks to your hands, add breadcrumbs.
Ingredients: 150 g breadcrumbs · 150 g parmesan · 4 pcs eggs · ½ tsp nutmeg · ½ pcs lemon · ½ tsp salt · ½ tsp black pepper
Firm and slightly moist — neither crumbling nor sticky.Wrap and rest half an hour
Wrap the dough in film and leave 30 minutes. The breadcrumbs must absorb the moisture from the eggs — used immediately the dough is too loose and the noodles fall apart as they are pressed.
Ingredients: 150 g breadcrumbs · 150 g parmesan · 4 pcs eggs · ½ tsp nutmeg · ½ pcs lemon · ½ tsp salt · ½ tsp black pepper
Bring the broth to a bare simmer
Bring the broth to a boil, then lower the heat until it barely trembles. The clarity of the broth matters here: passatelli shed a little cheese and crumb into it, and a boil turns it into a cloudy suspension.
Ingredients: 1500 ml broth
Press the dough straight into the broth
Press the dough through a large-holed potato ricer directly over the pot, cutting the strands off at 4 cm with a knife. The classic tool is a ferro per passatelli, but a ricer gives an almost identical result.
Ingredients: 150 g breadcrumbs · 150 g parmesan · 4 pcs eggs · ½ tsp nutmeg · ½ pcs lemon · ½ tsp salt · ½ tsp black pepper
A large-holed ricer — strands cut at 4 cm.Cook three minutes, from floating
Cook 3 minutes from the moment the noodles float to the surface — about 5 minutes in all, including the time to float. Longer and they dissolve into the broth — this is not pasta but breadcrumb dough, and it breaks down fast.
Ingredients: 1500 ml broth
They have floated — three minutes from now.Serve at once with parmesan
Ladle into deep bowls with the broth and scatter with parmesan and coarse pepper. Serve immediately — passatelli left standing in broth swell and turn to porridge within ten minutes.
Ingredients: 50 g parmesan · ½ tsp black pepper
Before you start
The broth must be good
This is a four-ingredient soup, so the broth has nowhere to hide. Classically it is made with capon or a mixed beef and chicken broth. Made with a stock cube it loses its point — better to save the recipe for a day when you have broth left over.
Passatelli asciutti
The version without broth, served like pasta with a sauce — most often tomato and sausage, or seafood on the Romagna coast. The noodles are then boiled in salted water and drained; the dough is identical.
Dough a day ahead
The dough keeps a day in the fridge wrapped in film and is then even easier to press. Cooked passatelli cannot be kept — this dish is made entirely in the quarter of an hour before serving.
