Pappardelle

In Tuscan dialect, papparsi means to gobble up, or stuff oneself. This is easily done with this wonderful shape of egg pasta – wide, luscious ribbons of rich egg dough. They are best served with a chunky, flavoursome, oily sauce – oil to coat the pasta, and juicy morsels to catch in the folds: in Tuscany, with a chicken liver or hare ragù, in the Veneto and Romagna with a pigeon one, in Lazio with wild boar or, in the Castelli Romani, with courgettes and their flowers. In Verona, it was compulsory to eat them with duck ragù on the feast day of San Zeno, patron saint of the city. These noodles have been around since medieval times when they were cooked in a game broth, thickened with blood.