Grana cheese, eggs, breadcrumbs. These are the few ingredients you need to prepare passatelli pasta. Traditionally they are served in clear soup, but the specialty from Marche, Umbria and Emilia-Romagna also comes to the table as pasta asciutta, for example with seafood and tomato sugo.
Azdore, the wisdom of women
The origin of passatelli pasta is attributed to the azdore. This was the name given to the women of peasant families in the past. They not only took care of the household and the children, but also the fields, the garden and the sale of products at the market. The older, life-experienced azdore were not infrequently sources of important knowledge – be it in family, social, health or agricultural matters. They played a central role in their villages.

The prodigal son
According to a legend, the son of an azdora returned home once again after years. For important visitors, it was customary to surprise the guest with cappelletti in brodo (stuffed pasta in soup). But what could be done when there was no flour in the house? The mother mixed what she had into a dough: eggs, Grana cheese and breadcrumbs.
And as was customary, the son, as the guest of honour, was given the largest portion of the passatelli pasta. The new dish was enjoyed by all and was cooked more and more often on special occasions.
📖 Recipe
Passatelli pasta
Ingredients
- 4 eggs
- 200 g breadcrumbs
- 200 g Grana cheese, grated
- nutmeg
- salt
- pepper
Instructions
- Mix all ingredients in a bowl until a smooth dough is formed. Season with nutmeg, salt and pepper. Allow to rest at room temperature for 2 hours, kneading the dough every 20 minutes. This will make it elastic and the passatelli will not fall apart during cooking.
- Bring the soup to the boil, reduce the heat and now press the passatelli dough through a passatelli iron or a potato press directly into the hot soup. It is best to do this in two to three rounds, otherwise the soup will cool down too much. Cook the passatelli until they rise to the top. Serve the passatelli in the soup and sprinkled with Grana cheese or Parmesan. If you like, decorate with fresh parsley.
Notes
Nutrition
Buon appetito!
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