Tajarin recipe: Piedmont's egg-yolk pasta for truffle season

Tajarin is Piedmont's answer to the question of how much egg a pasta dough can take before it stops being dough and starts being something closer to custard: up to 30 yolks per kilo of flour, cut into ribbons as thin as a matchstick.

The dish belongs to the Langhe, the hills around Alba where the region's white truffle fair opens every October, and the version below leans on that pairing without insisting on it. A plain butter-and-Parmigiano tajarin is already a complete dish; truffle is what you shave over it when the season, and the budget, allow.

Ingredients

The richness in tajarin is already in the noodle. Truffle is what you shave over it when the season allows, not what makes the dish work.

• 400g "00" flour
• 12 egg yolks
• 1 whole egg
• 1 tsp fine salt
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 80g unsalted butter
• 40g Parmigiano Reggiano, finely grated, plus more to serve
• Fresh white or black truffle, to shave (optional)

Method

1. Mound the flour on a clean work surface and make a well in the centre. The high yolk ratio makes this dough richer and more elastic than a standard egg pasta, so it needs the extra surface area a well gives it to absorb the eggs evenly.
2. Add the yolks, whole egg, salt and oil to the well. Beat the eggs gently with a fork, then start drawing in flour from the inner wall, widening the well as you go so it doesn't collapse.
3. Once the mixture is too thick for a fork, bring it together with your hands and knead for 8–10 minutes, until smooth, firm and slightly tacky. A dough this rich needs the full kneading time to develop enough gluten to hold together once rolled paper-thin.
4. Wrap the dough in cling film and rest it at room temperature for at least 1 hour. Resting relaxes the gluten, which is what lets you roll it thin without it springing back or tearing.
5. Roll the dough to about 1mm thick, by machine or by hand, dusting with flour as needed. Let the sheets dry for 10–15 minutes before cutting, just long enough that they don't stick to themselves once folded.
6. Loosely fold or roll each sheet and cut into ribbons about 2mm wide. Shake the strands apart and dust with a little more flour so they don't clump while they wait for the pot.
7. Bring a large pot of well-salted water to the boil. Tajarin is thin enough to cook in 90 seconds to 2 minutes, so have the sauce ready before the pasta goes in.
8. Melt the butter in a wide pan over low heat until it turns pale gold and smells faintly nutty, without browning it fully. Add a ladle of pasta water to loosen it into a loose emulsion.
9. Drain the pasta straight into the pan, toss with the Parmigiano and enough pasta water to coat every strand, then serve immediately with truffle shaved over the top if using.

Why butter and cheese, and nothing else

Piedmontese cooks treat garlic, cream and oil as distractions in a dish built to showcase the dough itself. The Alba truffle fair that opens this month draws cooks back to this exact pairing every autumn, but tajarin earns its place on a menu with nothing on it at all: the richness is already in the noodle. If truffle is out of reach, a handful of sautéed porcini does a similar job without emptying the kitchen's budget for the week.

Can tajarin be rolled by hand without a pasta machine? Yes, with a long thin rolling pin and patience: roll from the centre out, rotating the sheet often, until it is thin enough to read a newspaper through.