Pasta alla Norcina might be seen as boring, but it epitomises Italian pasta dishes like few others in its captivating simplicity. Its history and modern evolution, particularly online, justify this description in our view:
Norcia is a small town in Umbria, situated in the Apennines. The town has been famous for one thing for centuries: the processing of pork. The term ‘norcino’ (literally, ‘a resident of Norcia’) has become detached from the name of the town in Italian and now refers simply to a sausage maker. And a ‘norcineria’ is a butcher’s shop specialising in pork.
From this tradition has emerged a simple dish, but a very tasty one.
Traditionally, Pasta Norcina is served with short pasta. Rigatoni are commonly used, but we’ve gone for tortiglioni – with deep, twisted grooves that hold the sauce well. Onions and garlic (which don’t often appear together in the same dish in Italian cuisine), salsiccia and ricotta are the few other main ingredients. Some recipes even leave out the onion, but we think it’s needed.
A little peperoncino for spice also works very well in this dish, which is rich in fat thanks to the sausage and ricotta, and is given an umami kick by pecorino cheese at the end. So, in a little olive oil, chopped onion, garlic and crumbled chilli are sautéed over a medium-high heat. Purists even only flavour the oil with whole garlic cloves, which are then removed again.
Remove the casing from the salsiccia and tear or cut the sausage meat into small – but not too small – pieces. Just like in this recipe, which we highly recommend.
Add the salsiccia to the pan and fry gently, stirring occasionally – it will be cooked in about 3 minutes.
Next comes ricotta – please use the best quality you can find – along with a little freshly ground black pepper. The heat causes this Italian cottage cheese to melt quickly, but it remains very creamy and doesn’t become runny. If you can get ricotta made from sheep’s milk, you should give it a try.
Here comes the internet: this dish has recently been presented in many places as some sort of novelty, presumably because many people simply copy others’ work (or nowadays just let a machine do it for them).
Umbria – and Norcia in particular – is not only renowned for its sausage-making tradition but is also one of Italy’s most important truffle-producing regions. At some point, probably as the cuisine evolved from home cooking to restaurant fare, the two came together. And now everyone is talking about pasta alla Norcina with truffles.
This of course goes well with the ricotta and the simplicity of the dish, as we explained here for pasta with truffles. So feel free to do this – it’s obviously delicious. However, it’s not essential, nor is it the original.
If we were using truffles, we wouldn’t add any cheese. Without them, we finish the pasta with finely grated Pecorino. Just for flavour, not for substance – there’s already plenty of that.
Mix this together and add a little of the starchy pasta cooking water, then toss everything in the pan to create a typical Italian, creamy sauce. This process is called ‘mantecatura’ and we’ve explained it here, for example.
That’s all there is to it. It’s quick to make, has a rich cultural and historical background, and tastes absolutely delicious.
Enjoy.
And may the taste be with you.
Ingredients (for 2 people):
200 g rigatoni or tortiglioni
a little olive oil
1 small onion (optional)
1 clove of garlic
½ – 1 peperoncino (optional)
200 g salsiccia (casings removed)
120 g ricotta
freshly ground black pepper
Pecorino Romano, freshly grated to taste
a little of the pasta cooking water
