Ingredients (Serves 2)

For the pasta dough (I recommend weighing the ingredients)

• 100 g / 3.5 oz. semolina flour of good quality
• 50 g / 1.75 oz. warm water
• A pinch of salt

For the herb dressing

• 1 fresh garlic clove
• 3 tablespoons / 20 g shelled pistachios, lightly toasted in a dry skillet
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 25 g leaves of freshly harvested parsley, washed in cold water and patted dry
• 10 g leaves of freshly harvested marjoram, washed in cold water and patted dry
• 30 g freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
• 10 g freshly grated pecorino
• 1 tablespoon / 15 ml EV olive oil

Instructions

How to make the dough and shape spirali

Make a dough with the ingredients and knead until nice and smooth. [You can watch my hands at work in this short video] Let it rest, well covered (e.g., wrapped in plastic film), for half an hour or so.

Working on the kneading board, roll the dough into a thick salami and cut it into 5-6 pieces. Keep them covered while you shape the scorze. Roll each piece into a pencil-size snake (3/8 inch / 1 cm thick), then cut into 1.5 cm / 5/8 inch long pieces. (If your hands are quite large, you may need to increase the dimensions of the pieces slightly.)

Shape each small piece into a spirale using a bamboo sushi rolling mat. Place a piece of dough on the mat on a diagonal with respect to the slats. Place the index and middle finger on the dough: they will completely cover it. While applying pressure, drag the dough towards you and sideways (towards your right, if you are right-handed), so that it travels on a short diagonal path. The surface of the resulting pasta dough curl will have spiral ridges. Practice will teach your hands to apply the right amount of pressure to the dough so you thin it without making a hole. [You can watch my hands at work in this short video.]

Lay the spirali out on a lightly floured section of the kneading board (or a baking sheet lined with a cotton kitchen towel).

Repeat until you have used up the prepared dough.

Cook the spirali and dress them as you like. The following dressing is just a suggestion.

How to prepare the dressing

Mince the garlic clove and pistachios in the food processor fitted with a steel blade. Add the salt and the parsley and marjoram leaves, then start the food processor again. When they are minced, add the cheeses.

With the food processor running, slowly add the olive oil through the feeding tube. Process only until blended, to avoid overheating the mixture by attrition. Use some immediately and transfer the rest to a storage container and refrigerate. Note that this will make a rather dense mix: you will thin it later using some pasta cooking water.

How to cook and dress the spirali

Bring a small pot of water to a rolling boil, add some coarse salt, stir and then toss the spirali in it. The time needed to cook them is a bit variable, depending on their size, how dry they are, but it is not long.

In the meantime, take a tablespoon / 15 ml of herb dressing and place it in a bowl. Pour on it a tablespoon / 15 ml of pasta cooking water and stir well to make a sauce.

Taste and stop the cooking when the spirali are ready. Pour a glass of cold water in the pot, stir and drain leaving a little bit of the cooking water clinging to them. Drop the pasta into the bowl with the herb dressing. Stir well. Plate and serve immediately.

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