And after a long wait, here are the Frascarelli Marchigiani without rice with Grandma Sandra’s Recipe! Do you remember her? After the roast chicken recipe for the roast chicken day on October 2nd, my grandma Sandra got a taste for making video recipes! So here we are presenting her recipe, first from my grandma, then from her mother, and finally hers!
I could say it is now also mine, but I would need to make the Frascarelli a thousand more times as she did in her life. However, I can tell you I had a lot of fun cooking with my grandma, lots of dialect slipped out from both of us, but the beauty of these video recipes is also this: letting go while preparing family recipes. Having a grandma who supports me and especially participates in the videos and presents her recipes is a unique gift of life.
The recipe of one of the humble dishes of the culinary tradition of Marche, a main dish made with water, flour, eggs, and a pinch of salt. Few ingredients, easily obtainable, that fed the family and cost little. I would add that even today it still costs little to make it and it is offered in restaurants and taverns to preserve the traditions and pass them on to new generations by following historical recipes and adapting the Frascarelli Marchigiani to new cooking techniques.
How many times have you heard of the Frascarelli Marchigiani? Few, if you are not from Marche, Umbria, or at most the Lazio region bordering Marche and Umbria. If you then add a grandma now eighty-five years old who does not like rice, you will have obtained the recipe and video recipe of Frascarelli Marchigiani without rice!
The original recipe for Frascarelli from Marche involves the use of rice as an ingredient to be cooked together with the flour in the pot, but as I mentioned, my grandma does not like it much. Sandra says that her mother Elvira and her grandmother Santina did not add rice, perhaps they did not have it at home, or maybe they also did not like the version of the frascarelli with rice, so you can choose whether to add it or not.
We followed her recipe and prepared it together in my kitchen, and it is precisely this recipe that I share with you, both in the written version and in the video recipe you find below the first photo.
Below, I leave you links to other Marche recipes that I have made over the years, both recipes from my grandma Sandra and from my Grandma Licia, my mother Roberta’s mom, then there is the recipe for homemade Maritozzi from Maria, my partner’s grandma. Finally, the Fave dei Morti, the typical dessert of All Saints’ Day with the recipe from Lauretta, my father’s girlfriend. There is much of my family, of home, and of my beloved Marche!
I also remind you that I wait for you every morning in the Facebook group and fan page Le Ricette di Bea with the Recipe of the Day, now an unmissable appointment with all the friends of my blog!
- Difficulty: Very easy
- Cost: Very economical
- Preparation time: 10 Minutes
- Portions: 8People
- Cooking methods: Stove
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Autumn, Winter, Christmas
- Energy 428.42 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 62.28 (g) of which sugars 1.76 (g)
- Proteins 17.41 (g)
- Fat 13.74 (g) of which saturated 4.01 (g)of which unsaturated 6.19 (g)
- Fibers 3.15 (g)
- Sodium 525.80 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 300 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients for 8 servings of Frascarelli Marchigiani without rice
- 25 cups all-purpose flour
- 6 cups water (to boil for cooking the frascarelli)
- 1 egg
- 1 cup water (to knead the frascarelli marchigiani)
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 white onion (medium-sized)
- 1 stalk celery
- 1 carrot
- 2 cloves garlic
- 11 oz mixed ground meat (or ground meat of your choice)
- 3 cups tomato sauce
- 1 pinch salt
- Half glass water
- 3.5 oz cartilage pieces (if you find them from your trusted butcher, we also found a piece of knee muscle to add more flavor to the sauce)
- to taste extra virgin olive oil
As previously mentioned, there is no rice in this recipe, but if you’re curious and want to try, you should add 100 grams of rice for risotto when you cook the flour frascarelli in boiling water so it can cook along with them.
Another suggestion is related to the ragù sauce we prepared to dress the Frascarelli. Grandma Sandra calls it that, but obviously, it’s not the Bolognese ragù. If you watch the video recipe below the first photo, you’ll hear her explain that it’s not the classic Ragù from Bologna, but her own homemade version, a recipe that everyone loves and agrees on.
I’ll write down the recipe for her homemade ragù, but I will already tell you that it needs to simmer for about 3 hours. This time span is not indicated in the “rest times” section because it does not refer to the preparation of Frascarelli but to the sauce instead, and it would have been misleading for those looking to read the typical recipe for this rustic first course from Marche.
Another factor worth highlighting is the following: I indicated that you’ll get 8 servings of Frascarelli with this recipe, but be careful about what I’m about to say because this reveals a lot about my family and my grandma Sandra. According to my grandma, these quantities would be for about 6 people. According to me, who eats quite a bit and after having lunch with my father and Lauretta and after my grandma packed a huge plate to have Sofia try them, I can say that with 8 portions, I even aimed low.
If we make a quick calculation, as you can find below, the portion per person is about 300 grams of Marchigiani Frascarelli, which I think is abundant if you served some appetizers first and then plan to serve some main courses assuming a family lunch. So if there are 10 people at the table, you can still prepare the frascarelli with these quantities. If there are only 4 people at the table, just as another example, you’ll need to halve all the quantities indicated in the ingredients table.
Tools to Prepare Frascarelli Marchigiani without Rice Grandma Sandra’s Recipe
- 1 Bowl
- 1 Fork
- 1 Work Surface
- 1 Chopper
- 1 Pot
- 1 Wooden Spoon
- 1 Ladle
- 1 Whisk
- 1 Cutting Board
- 1 Knife
- 1 Pot
- 1 Lid
I recommend watching the Homemade Frascarelli Video Recipe before attempting this recipe, as the presence of Grandma Sandrina with her advice and life stories will entertain you during the preparation. She will explain all the key steps for the successful completion of this typical dish of humble Marche cuisine.
Steps for the Frascarelli Marchigiani without Rice Recipe with Video Recipe with Grandma Sandra
Let’s start by arranging on the work surface all the ingredients and all the necessary tools for the preparation of this typical dish from Marche. Pour into a large, high-sided pot a liter and a half of water, turn the flame very low, it should not come to a boil but should be nice and hot for when we use it for the cooking of the Frascarelli. As Grandma says, if the water comes to a boil, it will result in buturozzi and not the real Marchigiani frascarelli but a hard and inedible flour mash.
Then take a bowl if we will perform the initial work without making the flour fountain. If instead you want to make the flour fountain, pour 13 oz of all-purpose flour on the work surface, break the egg in the center, and gradually add the water to knead with your hands or with the fork slowly, in a thread.
Break an egg in the bowl, add a pinch of salt and beat it well with a fork to incorporate air. As Grandma Sandra says, we beat it adding a little salt tip. Grandma explains that with the tip of salt, the whites or albumen dissolve better. As I always recommend, even in desserts, a little salt tip is helpful.
Then add 1 cup of water that should be room temperature. Continue mixing with the fork during this first part of the recipe. Then add 13 oz of all-purpose flour and continue to mix. You will inevitably have to move to the work surface to continue the preparation of the homemade Marchigiani Frascarelli.
Dust the wooden table with some flour and invert the egg, water, and flour dough prepared in the bowl onto the table. Please ensure to use the flour taken from the total dose indicated above, from which we already removed 13 oz for the first dough.
Even when we clean the bowl, we should use the flour previously weighed as the dose for this recipe. Never increase the dose by taking flour from the packet. As Grandma says: it’s all paid for and nothing is wasted. From this point on, we will knead by hand, adding spoonfuls of the rest of the flour available. Slow movements from the outside to the inside, tearing the dough. You should not achieve a ball-shaped dough but rather a soft and sticky dough.
Now comes the fun part: take a chopper and begin cutting and “beating” the dough. You need to obtain many small pieces by beating the chopper on the wooden board. In the video recipe, this step is very clear; pay attention to Grandma and the movements she makes to show you how to prepare the Frascarelli Marchigiani dough. Thoroughly shred all the dough; in our region of Marche, we call them “li suricitti”. Listening to the video recipe, you’ll hear my grandma recounting how, as a child, she would race with other children to beat the frascarelli. Finish this process and transfer these small dough pieces onto a nice wide plate.
Now, let’s move next to the stove, always keep the pot with the flame on low. Take a hand whisk and the plate with the raw frascarelli. If necessary, add a thread of cold water if the water has become too close to boiling.
Gradually add the dough into the pot, stirring with the hand whisk, always touching the bottom to prevent sticking. In the video recipe, it’s clearly shown that my grandma first creates a whirlpool with the whisk and then adds the crushed frascarelli dough. If you decided also to use rice, this is the moment to add it to the pot. Pour in about 100 grams of rice for risottos and allow it to cook along with the rest in the pot.
From this moment on and for the next half hour, arm yourself with a pot holder, continue stirring first with the whisk then with the wooden spoon, and have lots of patience. They need to cook for 30 minutes and must always be stirred, without ever stopping. We took turns three or four times because stirring tires the arm, and after a while, it gets hard as the dough starts becoming creamy and soft. Therefore, you must intensify your strength to mix everything well. If you want to have a laugh with us, watch and especially listen to what the grandma says about it in the video recipe above.
After the thirty minutes of cooking, we will finally be ready to plate this first course of water, flour, and eggs. Take two nice baking dishes, wet the bottom with some ragù sauce that we have previously prepared, and with a spoon or ladle, gently pour the frascarelli over the sauce. Then add more meat sauce and sprinkle with plenty of grated cheese. We are finally ready to enjoy homemade frascarelli marchigiani without rice by Grandma Sandra!
To be served strictly hot and creamy on a wooden table or tray as we did. So grab a spoon and let us know if you were already familiar with this recipe or if you tried it for the first time after reading and watching this one prepared by me and my grandma.
There is nothing more to say, actually nothing left to say in this case, but to wish you a good appetite and remind you that I wait for you every day here on my cooking blog with many easy, quick, and delicious recipes like this one!
Do you want to prepare the condiment like Grandma’s? Well, if you have read this far, you surely deserve her recipe! As previously mentioned, this sauce with ground meat, cartilage pieces, knee muscle, and a few other simple ingredients requires 3 hours of cooking in a tall pot with a lid and low flame on the stove. So let’s start from the base, no sautéing. No one, nothing, nada de nada. Grandma would never allow it because the ground meat dries out, the onion stinks, and many other things she would say, but now, after so much reading, I’ll spare you them.
Start by thinly slicing the onion, then dice the carrot and celery, peel the two cloves of garlic and leave them whole. Pour a thread of extra virgin olive oil into a pot and place it on the stove on low flame. Now add the ground meat, the cartilage pieces cut into not too large pieces, the knee muscle covered with the tomato sauce.
Clean the can or glass jar with a thread of water and pour it into the pot. Do not yet add salt or other flavors. Grandma didn’t let me use basil, oregano, or anything else. No other ingredients should be added to grandma’s sauce, keep that in mind, and she insists on it.
Perhaps you’ll also add a “well, thank goodness!” given what we’ve already done and read so far. From here on, you won’t have to do anything else. Cover the pot with its lid leaving the wooden spoon resting on the edge so that the air can escape and no condensation forms. Let three hours pass, without ever stirring or moving the sauce, in fact, leaving the flame on the minimum no further action is needed. If you feel it deserves one or two stirs, go ahead, nobody will stop you, but if the ingredients are left as directed, you won’t need to do it even once. You’ll smell the aroma spreading in the kitchen, a scent that speaks of home, family, and grandmothers.
The grandma’s sauce is finally ready, a long wait but it will be worth it. Think that both grandma, my dad, his partner, and my uncle complimented me on the sauce I prepared for the marchigiani frascarelli without rice.
A dish of humble origins, a first course of the peasant tradition that still appears today in Marche cuisine. There are fairs and festivals dedicated to the Frascarelli throughout the year. Tradition passed down from family to family, the art of transforming water, flour, eggs, and salt into a special occasion, a moment of sharing, because you should know that, like with polenta, one would take their portion directly from the wooden table placed at the center of the table with a spoon. Family, in essence, also meant this, sharing what was available, the little moments the peasant life had to offer its people.
Tips and Variations:
I indicated as the main variation, also to respect the original Frascarelli Marchigiani recipe, the rice to be used in the preparation, specifically during cooking.
I recommend preparing them shortly before serving this dish, the reason is very simple. Grandma says that they can be reheated in a bain-marie, but having tried them both freshly made and reheated, I can tell you with absolute certainty that they do not have the same taste, consistency, and flavor as those served right after the 30 minutes of cooking. For this reason, take the time to prepare them at the moment.
The same advice can be given for the grandma’s ragù sauce. As mentioned, the condiment for the frascarelli requires about 3 hours of cooking and about ten minutes to prepare the ingredients. Again, take your time and dedicate yourself to the condiment that will be delicious with the grandma’s recipe.
