Fresh pistachio pasta, dough for hand press, pasta maker and “nonna papera”, to be distinguished from the recipe Pasta with pistachio and basil pesto

These days the pistachio festival took place in Bronte; as you may know this town is famous in Italy and worldwide for pistachio production, or the “green gold”. The fruits with their bright green color and intense aroma are highly prized and have D.O.P. certification.

Walking through the town center during the festival, I was attracted by a vendor offering fresh pistachio pasta. After buying and tasting it, I thought it would be interesting to recreate it at home and maybe share it on the blog.

The idea was a big success at home, and now I’m ready to write my recipe, suitable both for extrusion with a hand press (torchietto) and for use with a “nonna papera” pasta machine or roller.

Let’s see how to make it, but before you get your hands on the dough, remember that if you want to stay updated on all my recipes you can follow my Facebook page (here) and my Instagram profile (here).

Ingredients

3 5/8 cups re-milled durum wheat semolina (about 600 g (≈21 oz / 1 lb 5 oz))
1/2 cup pistachio flour (about 60 g (≈2.1 oz))
1 1/8 cups water (For a workable but rather firm dough (about 270 ml / 9 fl oz))
1 egg (60 g (about 2.1 oz))

Preparation of fresh pistachio pasta

Put all the ingredients in a bowl, start working them and then move to the work surface. Knead everything until you have a smooth, homogeneous and fairly firm dough.
Set up your press (torchio) or pasta machine and begin shaping the format you prefer.
If you use a manual hand press, the dough, even if firm, should not be rock hard; if instead you use an electric press, reduce the water a little and create a very hard dough that would be difficult to work by hand.
If you use a pasta machine such as the “nonna papera” or a roller, as you probably already know, you will have to pass the sheet several times until it is smooth and without holes.
Cooking times for fresh pasta vary greatly depending on the shape, so you should check by tasting. When the pasta loses that bitter, unpleasant wet-dough taste and the texture is the same on the surface and in the center, the pasta is cooked.
Remember that if fresh pasta, especially shapes like macaroni, twists or penne, is not well cooked, it becomes hard and almost inedible as soon as you drain it. So drain it only when you are sure it’s cooked. My macaroni took 7 minutes.
Update:
Recently I bought the advanced pasta maker; in this case the dose is:
– 3 cups (about 500 g) of re-milled durum wheat semolina;
– 1 cup (about 100 g) of pistachio flour;
– 190 g of liquid, which includes one egg (about 3/4 cup).
You must divide into two portions and make two batches of pasta; the machine does not work with more than 3 cups (about 500 g) of flour at a time.
If you want to buy it too, I absolutely recommend it; I get along very well with it and I’ll soon buy more dies. Here’s the link to take a look: Philips HR2375/05 Avance Pasta Maker, 200 W, Premium Design
If you don’t have tools to make pasta, you can hand-shape small macaroni:
Roll the dough into thin ropes, cut them so that they are about 1 9/16 in long, then using a knife drag them along their long side, as you can see in the photo.
For this pasta shape, the quantity indicated for the hand press or “nonna papera” is fine.