Photo Credit Lizzie Mayson
Nonna Pici "Sucareddi" with Lemon Cream and Herb-Infused Breadcrumbs
This recipe is very special to me and is one of my favorite recipes of all time. I created it for one of my first consultancies ever: a pasta restaurant in London that asked me to bring a bit of Sicilian sun into a pasta plate. It’s quick, easy, and delicious!
I remember that I was freaking out about the idea of creating a dish for a big restaurant in London. At the same time, I was also really honored because it meant I was doing something right.
The owner called me saying that he wanted to work with me because he liked what he saw on my Instagram. He said it was making him drool and it was very different from what was popular in the industry at that time: fresh pasta, hand-rolled, equipment-free, and very traditional to Southern Italy.
This was during the summer of 2018 and I was still enrolled in a Professional Pasta course in Italy (yes, there is such a thing) in Padua, near Venice. During this course, I learned everything other than Southern Italian pasta, which meant a lot of 00 flour and fresh egg pasta. It was very important to learn all the basics and that’s what I teach to my students via my pasta courses and online classes. Still, I have always been keen to make my fresh pasta with better quality flours and inspired by my Sicilian roots.
But I have to say that when I enrolled in that professional pasta course I didn’t have any idea how far it would take me. My idea was just one: to become a pasta connoisseur but my thinking didn’t go further than that. I didn’t plan to consult for opening new restaurants, developing menus, teaching pasta making. Nor did I expect to teach online and start my business, now called The Pasta Studio.
Returning to this pasta recipe, the owner of the restaurant requested a recipe for a simple lemon cream sauce with a long, thick fresh pasta. I took this idea and tweaked it a bit by adding what, at the Lauria household, is a pasta tradition: adding anchovies and a bit of chili pepper, freshly dried in the Sicilian sun.
Hang on, but you might be thinking: “What are sucareddi?” Sucareddi is a typical Southern pasta shape, closely resembling pici pasta from Tuscany. It’s a shape that my Nonna Ciccina (my mother’s mum) taught me to make one summer. Sucareddi pasta is now becoming more widely known across the globe both because they are taught during my delicious online classes and also because one of my students, who is a YouTuber, decided to share that shape during one of her episodes after enrolling in my Southern Italian Pasta Course.
Knowing that my grandma’s pasta is getting recognition makes me very happy. Of course, the London restaurant opted for the pasta machine, but here I am sharing the recipe for hand-rolled Succareddi, paired with a creamy, lemon anchovy sauce.
Now it’s time to make and enjoy this sunny pasta dish!
RECIPE
Serves 4-6
Prep time: 50 mins
Cook time: 10-15 mins
Special Equipment
Wooden board for pasta making
Kitchen scale
Microplane to grate lemon zest (good grater can also be okay)
Ingredients
For the pasta dough:
400 grams (about 3¼ cup) semolina rimacinata flour (finely ground durum wheat flour)
160-200 grams (about ⅔-¾ cup) lukewarm water
For the lemon anchovy sauce:
4 medium-sized garlic cloves, whole
½ cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
1 teaspoon fresh red chili pepper (you can sub for dried chili pepper), chopped
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
4 fillets of Sicilian (or Cantabrian) anchovies
2 medium-sized lemons (preferably certified organic) freshly squeezed
7 tablespoons full-fat, salted butter
Sea salt, to taste
For the breadcrumb topping:
4 tablespoons breadcrumbs, toasted
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped
1 garlic clove, finely minced
1 teaspoon salt (if breadcrumbs are salted, reduce)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
To Serve:
4 tablespoons, toasted infused herbs breadcrumbs
lemon zest, to taste (zest before juicing the lemon)
⅓ cup almonds, coarsely chopped
Method
To make the pasta dough:
Mix together the semolina flour and lukewarm water until a shaggy dough forms. Knead for 10 to 15 mins until you have a smooth, soft dough ball. Let it rest, covered in plastic wrap, for 20 minutes. (see semolina dough guide)
After the resting time, cut a small part of your pasta dough and put the rest into a ceramic bowl, covered, to prevent it from drying out. Start to roll the dough ball into a very long rope (starting from the center up until the edges of the dough) until you reach a diameter a little bigger than ⅛-inch (it should look like a long and thick spaghetti). Pro tip: wet your hands with a few dabs of good quality extra virgin olive oil. This will help provide some traction when rolling.