If you’re a fan of Italian cuisine, you might be familiar with the incredible diversity of pasta dishes that vary across Italy’s regions. Mandilli de Sea is a unique variety of Liguria. The name means “silk handkerchief”. In fact, they are thin, silky sheets of pasta, often served with vibrant pestos, or other sauces.
There are different types of mandilli, and as with every recipe, people make them in different ways, I’ve seen the dough made both with egg and without egg, as well made with plain flour or durum wheat semolina. So my version just wants to make it as easy as possible to recreate, with the simplest ingredients: plain flour, water and salt, that’s it.
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Mandilli De Sea – Italian Silk Handkerchiefs Pasta
Ingredients
- 125 g plain flour
- 60 g water
- A pinch of salt
- 4 tbsp basil pesto or other sauce
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, mix flour and salt, then slowly add water while mixing with your hands, until you have a rough dough. It might feel like it needs more water but make sure to knead it well before you add any more. It should not be crumbling but if its not entirely smooth that’s okay it will become smooth while resting. Knead for at least 5 minutes, then cover it with plastic wrap and let it rest for 30 minutes.
- Now it’s time to roll it out. If you have a pasta machine, use the thinnest setting, otherwise roll it out with a rolling pin, as thin as you can. It should be between 0,6 a 0,9 millimetres thick. Be careful not to break it. To shape them, you can either make them into 6×10 cm rectangles (easier to eat) or 14/15 cm bigger squares (more scenic to see).
- Sprinkle some flour on a tray and carefully place the squares on it, cover it with more flour and continue adding the squares as you make them. In this way they will not stick to each other.
- Bring water to a boil in a pot, add rock salt and lower the sheets into it. They need very little time to cook, so as soon as they rise taste one, and if they are ready take them out. To avoid them sticking to each other before adding a sauce, lower them in a bowl with some olive oil
- If you’re having them with pesto, mix the pesto with some pasta water in a bowl to thin it out then add the past and mix.
