Worms in the soup.....

Every once in a while when I was young, my grandmother would treat us to passatelli or what we kids called "worms in the soup". When she made this pasta made of breadcrumb, nutmeg, eggs and grated cheese, she would dry it on pieces of wax paper on her bed. Her bed would be covered with "worms" and her house would smell of her chicken soup and nutmeg, which makes these passatelli special.

The first Christmas after my grandmother passed we tried to recreate these for our Christmas meal. Picture my mother, my aunt Virginia, my uncle Frank, my brother, me and I even think Jason might have been there, squeezed around my mom's kitchen table trying to figure out this recipe. We had all eaten them for years, but had never been smart enough to learn how to make them. After a couple hours and not much success, we gave up, feeling defeated by breadcrumb and eggs! A couple days after that famous Friday night, I asked my mom if I could try to make them myself. We bought all the ingredients and I began to put things together with a small prayer to my kitchen god, which is grandma and miraculously a dough was formed. I waited until my mom came home from work that night before we cranked them out using my grandmother's manual meat grinder, which is how she used to do it. We covered the table with wax paper and a little at a time filled up every square with the "worms". Come Christmas day that year, mom made her delicious chicken broth and we enjoyed passatelli in brodo or "worms in the soup".

Here is my recipe for passatelli...

4 quarts of chicken broth to serve them

4 cups unseasoned breadcrumbs
1 cup grated Romano cheese
1 whole nutmeg, grated
7 whole eggs
salt
pepper

On a clean work surface, pour the breadcrumbs, cheese and grated nutmeg in the middle. Using the tops of your fingers, create a well in the middle for the eggs. One a time crack the eggs in the middle. Season entire thing with salt and pepper. Using a fork begin to beat eggs and a little at a time, pull the breadcrumb mix into it. When it becomes too difficult to use the fork, pull the dough together using your hands. You are looking for the dough to come together easily and not be sticky as it will get stuck in the press. Chill dough for fifteen minutes. Line your table or counters with parchment paper. To press your passatelli you can use, the meat grinder attachment to the kitchen aid (1/4 in diameter holes) or a ricer, which again has 1/4 inch diameter holes). Press the passatelli, cutting them when they are about 1 inch long, then separate them and let dry on paper. If you'd like you can crank these directly into simmering broth. Traditionally these are eaten in a chicken broth and are most common in the Northern part of Italy. Some recipes also use lemon zest as well, but whatever you choose, I hope you enjoy my family's recipe for Passatelli.