What it just look like a scrunched up piece of dough, has a story behind.
On one of my researches about food from and around my hometown, I came across this simple but yet effective pasta shape. Cugni.
Originally from Apecchio, about 80 km inland from Pesaro, this pasta was and still a typical part of the Sunday lunch in the area.
It can also still be found in local restaurants paired with chunky meat and beans sugo or mushroom ragù.
Like many other pasta shapes, the name of this pasta has roots in a dialect word.
Cugni is the local dialect word for “pugni” (fist), which perfectly capture the way this pasta is made.
After making a classic egg pasta dough, and rolling it out as you would for any other pasta, simply cut the sheet into long strips 2-3 cm wide. Then cut again each one to obtain a 10 cm long strip.
Place a strip in the palm of your hand and simply close your hand by forming a fist.
You will be left with a little scrunched up strip, but all the little pockets and twists formed along the strip capture the sauce perfectly.
You’ll find that they work a treat.
Davide
