Pizzoccheri
Pizzoccheri are a short tagliatelle made with buckwheat flour. Pizzoccheri is a pasta typical from the Alps bordering Switzerland and Italy.
1/2 pound of pizzoccheri
3 big potatoes
5 leafs of Swiss chard
1/2 pound of fontina cheese
5 oz of Grana Padano cheese
4oz of butter
A clove of garlic
4/5 sage leafs
Salt and pepper to taste
Clean the the chard and cut a V-shaped cut along the veins of the leaves, then remove the stem. Cut into sticks of a width of 1 cm so that are cooked faster.
Peel and cut the potatoes into chunks. Cook the potatoes and the Swiss chard for 10 minutes in a vegetable stock; in the same pan (with the chard and potatoes still inside) cook the Pizzoccheri pasta for another 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes of cooking, drain the pizzoccheri with a slotted spoon and pour some in a hot oven safe pan, sprinkle with grated Grana Padano and Valtellina Casera (you can use Fontina, Puzzone di Moena or Emmental), and continue alternating pizzoccheri and cheese. In a separate pan, melt the butter with the garlic cloves uncut and sage until the garlic gets brown, remove the garlic and pour the melted butter on pizzoccheri (do not forget to take out the garlic cloves or they will overpower the dish). Serve the pizzoccheri hot and with a dusting of freshly ground pepper.
