Region · Piedmont
Tajarin piemontesi
Tajarin — the Piedmontese spelling of tagliolini, pronounced 'tay-yah-reen' — is the narrowest and richest member of the fresh egg ribbon family. It is made with egg yolks alone, in proportions that reach thirty yolks per kilogram of flour, and is identified with the Langhe and Monferrato hills of southern Piedmont. The canonical dressings are few: butter and sage, the dripping juices of a roast, or shaved white truffle in season.
The pasta
Tajarin is a long, very narrow flat ribbon — 1 to 2 millimetres wide cooked, made from a yolks-only egg dough. The dialect spelling reflects the local pronunciation of tagliolini, the wider Italian term; in standard Italian the name is sometimes written tagliolini on menus outside Piedmont, but inside the region it is universally tajarin. The plural is tajarin; the singular, rare in usage, is tajarin also (the form does not inflect in dialect).
What distinguishes tajarin from ordinary tagliolini is the dough. The classical proportion is up to thirty egg yolks per kilogram of flour, with no whites and no water. The yolks supply all the moisture, the fat, and the colour. The result is a deep yellow, almost orange dough, very rich, slightly fragile, and capable of being rolled extraordinarily thin. The dough is, by any reasonable measure, the richest fresh pasta in the Italian tradition.
The proportions
The classical 30-yolks-per-kilogram is an upper limit and a romantic figure. The historian and chef Carlo Petrini (founder of Slow Food, born in Bra in Piedmont) has documented home recipes in the Langhe ranging from about 20 to 30 yolks per kilogram; restaurant practice tends to settle around 24 to 30. Some home cooks, conscious of cost (a kilogram of flour and 30 yolks is a serious investment) or the difficulty of finding uses for so many whites, work at the lower end of the range.
An average yolk weighs 17 to 20 grams, so 30 yolks is about 600 grams of yolk per kilogram of flour. The yolk contributes roughly 50% fat and 16% protein; this dough is, in effect, an unusually rich pasta that overlaps with custard at one extreme and traditional pasta at the other. It cooks fast (90 seconds to 2 minutes) and is at its best within hours of cutting.
The region
Tajarin is identified with two adjacent zones of southern Piedmont, both at the foot of the Alps:
- The Langhe. The famous wine country south and east of Alba, on hills facing the Tanaro river. Home of Barolo, Barbaresco, Dolcetto, Moscato d'Asti. The town of Alba is the central market and the home of the famous truffle fair. The Langhe is, by any measure, one of the great gastronomic landscapes of Italy.
- The Monferrato. The hills to the north of the Langhe, around Asti and Casale Monferrato, slightly less famous internationally but with overlapping cuisine and wine. Monferrato is a UNESCO World Heritage region (with the Langhe and Roero) for its vineyard landscapes.
Tajarin is also made and eaten throughout the rest of Piedmont and into the bordering Lombard and Ligurian provinces, but the dish's identity is firmly Langhe-and-Monferrato.
The three canonical dressings
Tajarin has, in the strict tradition, only three classical pairings:
Burro e salvia — butter and sage
The everyday version. Two or three sage leaves are crisped in melted butter; the cooked tajarin is tossed in the resulting pan with a splash of pasta water and a final grating of Parmigiano. The simplest, lightest expression of the dish. A Piedmontese family weekday lunch.
Sugo d'arrosto — the drippings of a roast
Traditionally, the day after a Sunday roast (typically a roast of veal, beef, or capon), the concentrated pan juices — brown, oily, caramelised, deeply savoury — are loosened with a small amount of broth or water and used to dress tajarin. The dish is intensely flavoured and unmistakably country in origin: nothing is wasted; yesterday's roast becomes today's pasta. This dressing is the most traditional of the three and is the one most often served by older Piedmontese trattorias.
Al tartufo bianco — with white truffle
The luxury version, in season (October to early December). Tajarin is dressed in butter only and topped, at the table, with thin shavings of raw Alba white truffle. No cheese is added; the cheese would mask the truffle. This is the dish that has made tajarin internationally famous in the past forty years, alongside the rise of the white truffle as a luxury commodity. See the tartufo bianco page for the full treatment.
Cutting tajarin
Tajarin is the hardest fresh ribbon to cut by hand: 1 to 2 millimetres requires a sharp knife, a steady hand, and a sheet rolled to roughly 0.6 to 0.8 millimetres — thinner than tagliatelle. Many Piedmontese home cooks use a pasta machine's narrowest cutter attachment (typically 1.5 mm) for everyday use and reserve hand-cutting for special occasions. The traditional method is the same as for tagliatelle: dust the sheet with semola, rest 5 minutes, roll loosely into a flat tube, slice in even strokes, unfurl immediately. The narrower the target width, the more critical the technique.
The whites question
The all-yolk dough leaves a substantial supply of egg whites in the Piedmontese kitchen. The whites have, over the centuries, found uses: in meringues (the Italian spumini), in amaretti (the classic Piedmontese almond biscuits, which use whipped whites as a binder), and in baci di dama and other hazelnut confections. Some families freeze the whites in measured portions for later use. Industrial pasta producers send them to the bakery trade. The disposal is a real practical matter and partly explains why home tajarin is, in many households, a special-occasion rather than weekday dish.
Wine
The wines of the Langhe and Monferrato are the canonical pairings: Barolo DOCG and Barbaresco DOCG (both Nebbiolo) with the truffle and roast versions; Dolcetto d'Alba DOC or Barbera d'Asti DOCG with the simpler butter-and-sage. A young Nebbiolo (Langhe Nebbiolo DOC) is the cheaper everyday choice for tajarin al sugo d'arrosto.