Technique · Making
Cutting the ribbons
Once the sfoglia is rolled, the cut is what makes the pasta tagliatelle and not something else. Hand-cutting takes a sharp long knife, a generously floured sheet, and steady spacing. The width specified by the 1972 deposit is 8 mm cooked — cut raw at around 6.5 to 7 mm to allow for swelling at the boil.
Before you cut
The sheet, rolled to about 1 mm thick and translucent, needs a brief rest and a generous dusting before the cut. The reason is simple: fresh pasta is sticky. If you roll it tightly while still tacky, the windings of the rolled tube fuse together and the cut ribbons emerge as a single mass. If the surface has dried slightly and is well-floured, the windings separate cleanly under the knife.
The traditional dusting flour is semola di grano duro rimacinata — twice-milled durum-wheat semolina. Coarser than tipo 00, it dusts the sheet without absorbing moisture from it, leaves a clean surface, and falls away as the ribbons are tossed. Tipo 00 can be substituted in a pinch but is more prone to clumping; cornflour works in a kitchen emergency but is not traditional.
- Lay the rolled sheet on a flat dry surface (the wooden board, or a clean tea towel on a counter).
- Dust the upper surface generously with semola — a light snowfall, not a blizzard.
- Rest 5 to 10 minutes. The surface dries slightly; the sheet stiffens enough to hold its shape under the knife.
- Turn the sheet over (carefully; large fresh sheets tear at handles) and dust the second side.
The roll into a flat tube
The cut is made not on the flat sheet but on a loose, flat-folded roll. The reason is mechanical: a long knife stroke through a flat sheet would produce a single 30 cm-long cut; rolling the sheet up first lets each stroke cut through twenty layers at once, producing twenty ribbons in one pass.
To roll: lay the dusted sheet long-edge-toward-you. Take the near edge and fold it loosely about 8 cm toward the far edge, then continue folding loosely — not rolling tightly — in 8 cm increments until you have a flat-pleated package about 8 cm tall and the full length of the sheet wide. Some sfogline roll rather than fold; both work, but the flat fold makes the unfurling after cutting easier. The fold should be loose. A tight roll fuses; a loose fold separates.
The cut
The knife is a long, sharp knife — a chef's knife of 25 cm or more is ideal. A short knife requires multiple strokes per cut and produces unevenness; a dull knife crushes rather than cuts and seals the ribbon edges together. Sharpness matters: a knife that draws a wave-edged cut through a tomato will produce wave-edged tagliatelle.
Stand the rolled package on the board. Holding the knife perpendicular to the long axis, cut down in single firm strokes at 8 mm intervals along the package — for raw width, 6.5 to 7 mm; for cooked width, 8 mm. (Most home cooks measure with their eye after the first few cuts; the eye learns the spacing within an evening.) The cut should be clean and even. After each stroke, the knife is wiped on a tea towel if it has picked up sticky dough.
Some sfogline use a wooden cutting guide — a slim board with a parallel groove at the target width — to keep the cuts even. Most do not. Hand spacing produces small natural variation in width, which is part of the visual signature of homemade pasta and is welcome.
The unfurl
Immediately after cutting, unfurl each pile of ribbons. The technique is to slide the fingers into the centre of the cut pile and lift gently; the loose folds release into long ribbons. If the unfurling is delayed even by a minute or two, the ribbons can start to stick together at the cut edges and become difficult to separate later.
As you unfurl, dust the ribbons with more semola, and form them into nidi — nests — on a tray dusted with semola or on a clean floured board. A nido is made by wrapping six or eight ribbons loosely around two or three fingers, withdrawing the fingers, and setting the resulting small coil on the tray. Each nido is roughly one portion. The nidi dry slightly, do not stick together, and are easy to lift and lower into the boiling water.
Width variations across the family
- Tagliatelle — 6.5 to 7 mm raw, 8 mm cooked. The Bolognese standard.
- Tagliolini — 2 to 2.5 mm raw, 3 mm cooked. The narrow Emilian and Marche cousin.
- Tajarin — 1 to 1.5 mm raw, 2 mm cooked. The Piedmontese narrowest.
- Fettuccine — 4 to 5 mm raw, 5 to 6 mm cooked. The Roman.
- Pappardelle — 18 to 25 mm raw, 20 to 30 mm cooked. The Tuscan.
The same dough, the same sheet, the same board, the same knife: the cut, alone, makes the pasta. A single rolled sheet can be cut into all five formats in succession if you wish — though in practice each cut is for a specific dish, and a single dinner cuts one width.
The decorative cut
For occasions when the pasta is to be admired — weddings, festivals, the sfoglina demonstrations of the Bologna cultural cooperatives — the edges are sometimes cut with a rotella dentellata, a fluted pastry wheel. The wheel produces a wavy edge on each ribbon and is the visual signature of pappardelle in particular; on tagliatelle it is rarer but not unknown. The same wheel is used for cutting ravioli and tortelli edges.
The aftermath
Once the nidi are on the tray, the pasta is ready to cook within 30 minutes — or, dusted with semola and covered with a clean tea towel, refrigerated for up to 24 to 48 hours; or, frozen on the tray and then bagged, for up to a month. See drying and storing for the full storage protocol. For best texture, cook within hours of cutting.