Rigatoni alla buttera
Rigatoni alla buttera
A rustic, hearty pasta dish from Maremma, with a meat sauce made with pancetta, prosciutto and sausage
For today’s recipe - sponsored by Latte Maremma - we’re driving south to Maremma, likely one of Tuscany’s wildest areas, where the consortium of Latte Maremma has promoted the taste and quality of their dairy products since 1961.
Maremma is the land of butteri, the Tuscan cowboys, buffaloes and oxen with half-moon shaped horns, those depicted by the painters of the Macchiaioli movement and by one of its founders, Giovanni Fattori.
This is an unexpected, altogether wilder Tuscany, one very different from the stereotypical olive groves and vineyard-covered hills of Chianti.
Today’s recipe is rigatoni alla buttera, a rustic, hearty pasta dish from Maremma, with a meat sauce made with pancetta, prosciutto and sausage - originally wild boar sausage -, much more affordable for butteri than beef.
Picture this dish in one of the many food festivals that pop up in Maremma during the good season, and enjoy it!
Watch the video recipe on Instagram, where we shared the reel filmed for Latte Maremma. We thought you would have loved to have also a detailed recipe to follow, so here it is.
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Rigatoni alla buttera
A quintessential recipe from Maremma, rigatoni alla buttera is a rustic, hearty pasta dish. The pasta is bound together with a dash of milk, 2 egg yolks, and a generous grating of Gran Maremma, an aged cow milk cheese produced by Latte Maremma with local milk and vegetable rennet. Its low moisture and dry, grainy texture concentrate the milk flavour and enhance its taste.
Serve immediately, or reheat in a hot oven the next day.
If you need to print this recipe to keep it in your kitchen and use for scribbling down your notes, you find the printable PDF below and you can print just odd pages to avoid photos and save ink.
Serves 6
20 g butter
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 golden onion, finely minced
1 clove garlic, finely minced
A handful sage leaves, finely minced
Chilli pepper
30 g prosciutto crudo, cut into thin strips
60 g pancetta, cut into thin strips
1 carrot, finely minced
1 celery stalk, finely minced
400 g fresh pork sausage, casing removed and crumbled
120 ml dry white wine
400 g peeled tomatoes, crushed
250 ml hot water
500 g rigatoni
2 egg yolks
A dash milk
Grated Gran Maremma
Pour the extra virgin olive oil into a thick-bottomed pot, add the butter and melt on medium flame. Add the finely minced onion, garlic, and sage, chilli pepper to taste, then the prosciutto and pancetta, and sautée on low heat for about 5 minutes, stirring often with a wooden spoon.
Add the carrot and celery, stir, and sautée on low heat for about 10 minutes, stirring often with a wooden spoon, until softened.
Add the peeled and crumbled sausage and cook until it starts to sizzle: try to break the sausage with a wooden spoon to crumble it into small pieces.
When the sausage is golden brown - it will require about 10 minutes -, pour in the white wine and reduce for about 10 minutes on medium heat, stirring occasionally.
Add the crushed peeled tomatoes and the hot water, then cover with a lid.
Cook on low heat for about 40 minutes, checking it once in a while.
When the sauce is almost ready, cook the pasta in boiling salted water according to the packaging instructions.
Drain the pasta and add it to the sausage sauce, along with 2 egg yolks, a dash of milk, and plenty of grated Gran Maremma.
Stir and serve immediately.
Variations.
Use fresh pasta like pici with this rustic, hearty sauce, or your favourite dry pasta.
If you have leftovers, collect the pasta in a tray, drizzle with some more milk, and bake in a very hot oven until nicely golden brown on top. It’s an impromptu pasta al forno, baked pasta, that everyone will love.
