Fileja is a
traditional handmade egg-less pasta from southern Italy, specifically Calabria
where many of my ancestors lived. It has a distinctive look and a shape that
traps and holds sauce very well. Because it is a substantial pasta it has a
nice chewy bite that goes well with a rich meat sauce. We usually serve them
with a slow cooked pork ragu or with chunky roasted tomatoes.
The technique
for making fileja involves rolling a piece of pasta dough around a metal or
wooden rod or skewer. In Calabrian dialect this pasta making tool is called a
dinaculu. I made our dinaculu by
snipping off the long side of a wire coat hanger. Credit for that idea goes to
Rosetta Costantino in her book My Calabria. It is the perfect tool for making
this interesting and versatile pasta. One Christmas I gave sets of them to my
kids as stocking stuffers calling them "pasta machines".
There are
similar types of pasta in other parts of Italy. In Sicily, they are called
busiate. The general term for pasta that is made by rolling the dough around a
steel or wooden rod is maccheroni al ferratto - literally maccheroni made on
iron.
Here two of the
dinaculu I made -
Video on how to make them -
Proportions for making enough for 4 people as a main dish - 3 cups of flour - semolina or unbleached all-purpose or a mix of half semolina and half all purpose flour 3/4 cup water (approx)
The amount of
water can vary depending on the humidity in your kitchen and the
moisture level in your choice of flour. If using all-purpose, we like King Arthur brand. Mound the flour on a work surface or in a bowl and add the water a little at a time to form a dough. Knead until smooth and allow to rest
for 30 minutes wrapped in plastic wrap.
Rolling is best done on a sturdy smooth surface like a kitchen table or counter top. Dust the surface you will be working on with just a little flour - not too much or the dough won't roll and wrap properly. Pull off a small piece of dough, a little bigger than a
marble, and make a short rope with it, about 2-3 inches long and almost 1/2-inch in diameter. Gently push the rod into the pasta lengthwise and at a slight angle. Using only light pressure
from your fingertips roll each piece forward away from you and then back again several times, stretching it a little as you go. The dough will wrap itself around the rod to
form the fileja. Then slide the pasta off the rod. Repeat with the remaining dough. Lay the fileja out on a towel or sheet to dry for at least 30 minutes to an hour before cooking. With a little practice you can make dozens of these quickly. And if you are having friends over, pour some wine and let everyone do some rolling.
You will notice
the surface of the pasta has a slight roughness. This is typical of fresh hand
made pasta and one of the reasons it's so much better than store bought That
roughness helps the sauce adhere and absorb into the pasta.
Note: Fresh pasta does not take as long to cook as store bought dried. Figure about 5 minutes max in rapidly boiling water for fileja, less if you are adding them to the sauce in the pan to finish cooking. Don't over cook them ! We make these at home regularly where it's a fun group activity. As you can see in this photo, different hands make different variations on the theme. Like snowflakes, no two fileja are the same...
With roasted tomatoes - Letting the fileja, or any type of pasta, finish cooking in the sauce lets the pasta absorb the flavors of the sauce much better than just ladling the sauce over the finished pasta in a bowl.
This blog post is a little departure from food and gardening but I wanted to give you all a little background. Vazzano, Italy is our family's ancestral home. It is a small rural agricultural village of about 1,100 in Calabria, the southernmost region of Italy, the "toe" of the boot. The town dates back to the Roman Empire when it was called Subsicium. My great grandfather, Bruno Fuscà, came over in 1895 with his brother and two friends. He worked on the Pennsylvania railroad doing grunt labor for the next three years and saved his money. In 1898 he sent for the rest of the family - my great grandmother Marianna Nicolina DePalma,and my grandfather Domenico Antonio and his two brothers,Giuseppe and Francesco. They settled in Pittsburgh where Bruno bought a building which he converted into a combination grocery store and home. The store was on the ground floor and the family lived upstairs. At some point early on, due to an error in some important paperwork, our last name was mistranscribed from from Fuscà to Fusia. They decided to keep the new American name.
Vazzano, Italy
Panoramic video of the olive tree filled countryside around Vazzano
Out on a walk around Vazzano by Micuccio Caloiero
Just in case, some day, someone might want to visit Vazzano by flying to Naples and driving to Vazzano, here is a link to the directions -
Throughout the summer, towns and villages in southern Italy burst into life, hosting an array of festivals and events. About this time every August, Vazzano, my family's ancestral town in Calabria, Italyholds the annual Sagra di Pipi e Patate -The Pepper and Potato Festival. Today is the day! Below is a poster for the 2014 festival.Colpo di Fulmineliterally means bolt of lightning but also means "love at first sight", finding your soul mate. Peppers and potatoes are a perfect match!
We make this pepper and potato dish in honor of the festival.
Ingredients:
4 medium white or Yukon gold potatoes - sliced 2 red bell peppers - sliced in strips 1 cubanelle pepper - or a yellow or orange bell - sliced in strips 1 hot Calabrese pepper (of course) or half a teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes 1 sweet onion cut into half moons 5 cloves of garlic sliced thin Olive oil as needed 1 teaspoon fresh rosemary - roughly chopped Juice of half a lemon salt & pepper Pecorino cheese
Procedure:
Salt and pepper the potato slices and drizzle with olive oil in a casserole and roast for 40 minutes at 375. Meanwhile saute the peppers and onions with the rosemary, garlic and lemon juice in a pan with olive oil until soft and caramelized. Mix the peppers with the potatoes in the casserole dish and let the flavors blend. Put back in the oven until browned to your liking.Top with grated pecorino. Good served at room temperature.
