An egg-pasta reference
Tagliatelle
Long ribbons of fresh egg pasta from Emilia-Romagna, cut to a standard 8 mm.
Tagliatelle is a ribbon-cut pasta all'uovo made from soft-wheat flour and whole eggs, rolled thin and sliced 6–8 mm wide. Its home is Bologna, where in 1972 the Accademia Italiana della Cucina deposited a literal gold tagliatella at the city's Chamber of Commerce to fix the cooked width at exactly 8 mm — one twelve-thousand-two-hundred-and-seventieth of the Torre degli Asinelli.
This site is a static reference: no recipes that aren't Italian, no shortcuts that don't work, no claims without a source. Thirty-eight articles on the dough, the cutting, the canonical pairings, the regional variants, and the small print of what tagliatelle bolognesi actually means.
- Official cooked width
- 8 mm
- Deposited at Bologna
- 1972
- Classic dough ratio
- 1 egg : 100 g
- Articles
- 38
I · Begin with the dough
Make tagliatelle from scratch
Flour, eggs, a board, a rolling pin. Eight pages walking through the Emilia-Romagna technique — from the fontana on the board to the moment the strands hit the salted water.
Read the dough guide →
II · Begin with a sauce
Find the right pairing
Tagliatelle is engineered to cling: porous, broad, rough-cut. Ten sauces from the canonical ragù bolognese to white-truffle plates of the Langhe, each with sourcing and ratios.
Read the sauce index →
The 1972 Bologna deposit
In 1972, the Accademia Italiana della Cucina and the Confraternita del Tortellino registered with the Bologna Chamber of Commerce the official dimensions of tagliatelle bolognesi: 8 millimetres wide once cooked, which is precisely one twelve-thousand-two-hundred-and-seventieth of the height of the Torre degli Asinelli, 97.20 m above the city.
A small gold tagliatella, mounted in a frame, sits in the Chamber's offices.
The deposit fixed the canonical recipe for ragù classico bolognese in the same gesture — later revised by the same Accademia in 1982 and again in 2023. Neither carries the force of an EU DOP or IGP. They are conventions, not laws. But they are the conventions Italian cooks invoke when they argue about what tagliatelle ought to be.
I.The pasta
What tagliatelle is and where it comes from
A definition, an account of the legend and the documented record, the 1972 Bologna standard explained in full, and notes on the two recognised variants — egg and spinach.
What is tagliatelle
Ribbon pasta cut from a sheet of fresh egg dough, 6–8 mm wide raw and around 8 mm cooked. The defining word is uovo — without eggs, it is not tagliatelle.
Origins and the legend
The apocryphal Lucrezia Borgia story circulated in modern times, and the real record of ribbon egg pasta in Emilia-Romagna kitchens long before it.
The Bologna standard
The gold tagliatella deposited at the Chamber of Commerce, the 8 mm cooked width, the Asinelli ratio, and the parallel ragù classico registration of the same year.
The egg-pasta tradition
Why northern Italy makes pasta all'uovo and the south makes pasta di semola — wheat geography, dairy farming, and the Emilia-Romagna kitchen.
Tagliatelle verdi
Spinach-tinted egg pasta common in Emilia-Romagna, classically paired with ragù and used in the lasagne verdi of Bologna. Same dough, blanched-pressed spinach added.
II.Comparisons
Tagliatelle and its near-relatives
Long ribbon pastas are easy to confuse on the shelf. The differences are width, thickness, region — and most decisively, whether the dough contains egg.
Tagliatelle vs fettuccine
Both fresh egg pasta. Fettuccine is Roman and typically narrower (5–6 mm); tagliatelle Bolognese and 8 mm. The differences are regional rather than structural.
Tagliatelle vs pappardelle
Same egg dough cut wider — pappardelle runs 20–30 mm — and paired with the hearty Tuscan game ragùs of wild boar and hare.
Tagliatelle vs linguine
A different pasta altogether: linguine is dried semola, no egg, Ligurian, and paired with pesto and seafood. The similarity ends at the ribbon shape.
Tagliatelle vs tagliolini
Same dough, narrower cut: tagliolini at 2–3 mm, and tajarin at 1–2 mm in Piedmont with thirty yolks per kilo of flour.
III.Making fresh tagliatelle
From flour and eggs to the salted water
The classic Emilia-Romagna technique in eight steps. Soft-wheat flour, whole eggs, no oil, no water — and a sheet thin enough to read through.
The fresh egg dough
One whole egg per 100 g of tipo 00 flour, mounded into a fontana, fork-mixed outward, kneaded ten minutes, rested thirty wrapped in film.
Choosing the flour
Tipo 00 is the classic, soft-wheat (frumento tenero), 9–11% protein, silky. Some sfogline add semola rimacinata for extra structure.
The egg-to-flour ratio
1:100 for tagliatelle bolognesi. Yolks-only versions (up to 30 yolks per kilogram) belong to Piedmont's tajarin. Whole eggs everywhere else.
Rolling with the mattarello
The long Italian rolling pin, the wooden spianatoia, rolling outward from the centre, lifting and turning, until you can see your hand through the sheet.
Using a pasta machine
Imperia, Marcato, Atlas. Start widest (#1), pass through progressively narrower settings dusting with flour, finish around #5 or #6 for tagliatelle.
Cutting the ribbons
By hand: dust the sheet, roll loosely, slice at 8 mm intervals with a sharp blade, unfurl. By machine: the dedicated tagliatelle attachment, typically 6.5 mm.
Drying and storing
Form into nidi (nests) on a floured tray or hang on a rack. Cook same day, refrigerate up to two days, or freeze the nests up to one month.
Cooking fresh tagliatelle
10 g salt per litre, hard boil, drop in the nests. Two to three minutes — fresh egg pasta does not need to be al dente the way dried pasta does. Save the water.
IV.Classic sauces
What tagliatelle is paired with, and why
The broad rough-cut ribbon was made for sauces that cling: long-cooked meat ragùs, butter emulsions, and the seasonal Piedmontese plates that need a quiet pasta to carry them.
Ragù bolognese
The Accademia recipe: cartella of beef, pancetta, soffritto, dry white wine, milk, a little tomato. Two to three hours of simmering. No garlic, no herbs.
Al tartufo bianco
White truffle of Alba (Tuber magnatum pico), shaved raw over butter-dressed tagliatelle. No cheese — the truffle is the dish. October to December only.
Ai funghi porcini
Boletus edulis, fresh or dried-rehydrated, sautéed with garlic and parsley, finished with butter and pasta water. The autumn standard from Piedmont to Emilia.
Al limone
Butter, cream (optional), Parmigiano, the zest and juice of an unwaxed Amalfi or Sorrento lemon. Light, sharp, finished off the heat to keep the lemon bright.
Alla boscaiola
"Woodsman's" sauce: mushrooms, sausage or pancetta, sometimes tomato, sometimes cream — there is no single correct version. The shared idea is the forest in autumn.
Ai frutti di mare
Less classic than with spaghetti, but found along the Romagna coast: clams, mussels, prawns, olive oil, garlic, white wine, parsley. No cheese.
Con prosciutto e piselli
Cooked ham or prosciutto crudo, fresh peas, butter or a little cream, Parmigiano. A spring dish, light and built on the quality of the peas.
Burro e Parmigiano
The simplest finish: butter, 24-month Parmigiano-Reggiano, pasta water emulsified into the pan. The base behind half of Italian first courses.
Alla papalina
"The Pope's" sauce — a refined relative of carbonara associated with the Pius XII years. Prosciutto cotto, eggs, butter, Parmigiano, sometimes peas.
Al sugo di noci
Walnut sauce: shelled walnuts, bread soaked in milk, garlic, olive oil, Parmigiano, sometimes a little marjoram. Ligurian root, adapted northward.
V.Regional variants
The same dough, three traditions
Tagliatelle is Bolognese by birth, but the egg-ribbon family stretches west into Piedmont and south through Emilia and the Marche. The differences are width, yolks-to-whites, and what arrives on top.
Tagliatelle bolognesi
The canonical 8 mm ribbon, whole-egg dough, paired with ragù or with butter and Parmigiano. The Bologna sfoglina tradition, the festa, the gold tagliatella.
Tajarin piemontesi
Hair-thin (1–2 mm) yolks-rich ribbons — up to thirty yolks per kilogram of flour — paired with butter and sage, the local roast drippings, or shaved white truffle.
Tagliolini
The narrower cousin (2–3 mm), same egg dough, used in capon broth in winter and with truffle, butter, or seafood across northern coasts.
VI.Tools, pairings & pitfalls
The kitchen reference
What tools the Bolognese sfogline use, what to pour with the plate, what cheese to grate, how long to cook, and which mistakes recur in every kitchen that didn't grow up making egg pasta.
Pasta tools
The mattarello, the spianatoia, the raschietto, the rotella, the pasta machine, the drying rack. What each does and what to buy.
Wine pairings
Lambrusco with ragù, Sangiovese with tomato, Barolo or Barbaresco with white truffle, Pignoletto with butter or lemon plates. Region eats region.
Cheese pairings
Parmigiano-Reggiano DOP — 12, 24, or 36 months. Grana Padano as a cheaper substitute. Pecorino Romano almost never with tagliatelle. Why.
Cooking times
Fresh: 2–3 minutes. Dried (boxed) egg tagliatelle: 6–8 minutes. Salt level, water volume, why egg pasta is not judged the way dried al dente is.
Common mistakes
Over-flouring the sheet, skipping the rest, oiling the cooking water, rinsing after draining, not reserving pasta water. Eight errors and their fixes.
VII.Resources
Glossary, sources, & colophon
An A–Z of Italian pasta vocabulary, a working bibliography of the books and registered deposits this site rests on, and a note on editorial method.
Glossary
Italian terms used across the site, with brief definitions: pasta all'uovo, sfoglia, sfoglina, fontana, soffritto, al dente, mantecare, and others.
Sources
Pellegrino Artusi's 1891 La scienza in cucina, the Accademia Italiana della Cucina deposits of 1972, 1982 and 2023, Slow Food Editore regional pasta atlases.
About this site
Editorial mission, sourcing rules, what gets published and what does not. Built as a static reference, with no advertising, no recipes invented, no claims unattributed.
La sfoglia non si fa con l'acqua, si fa con l'uovo.
— Bolognese kitchen tradition