Trofie

Handmade using a dough of 00 (doppio zero) flour and water, sometimes with the addition of potato purée, trofie are little pieces of dough twisted to look like little spirals with pointed ends. To make these Ligurian specialities, roll some fresh dough in the palm of your hand until it is long and thin, like spaghetti. Cut it into 4-cm (1½-inch) chunks and roll them again with your fingers to make the spiral shape and the pointed ends. They are eaten mostly with pesto sauce but are also very good with other sauces, called tocchi in Liguria, including tocco di noce, a walnut sauce, which is also used to savour Pansôti al Preboggion. See also Bavette and Fettuccine.