When you have a white truffle, enjoy it just as they do in Alba, with golden tajarin. If fresh truffle is unavailable, packaged truffle butter makes a nice dressing for the pasta too (see Sources, page 340). Should you have no truffle at all, tajarin with only butter and Grana Padano or Parmigiano-Reggiano will be simply luxurious, if not quite ethereal.

　　

Ingredients

makes 1 pound of fresh pasta, serving 6 as a first course

　　

For the Pasta

2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for working

　　9 large egg yolks (about 2/3 cup)

　　2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

　　3 tablespoons ice water, plus more as needed

　　

For Cooking and Dressing the Pasta

1 tablespoon coarse sea salt or kosher salt, or more if needed

　　1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter

　　1 cup freshly grated Grana Padano or Parmigiano-Reggiano

　　1-ounce or larger white truffle, brushed clean

　　

Recommended Equipment

A food processor and a pasta-rolling machine

　　An 8-quart pot for cooking the pasta

　　A heavy, wide skillet for dressing the pasta

　　A truffle shaver or sharp vegetable peeler

　　

Step 1

To mix the tajarin dough, put the 2 cups flour in the food processor, fitted with the metal blade, and process for a few seconds to aerate. Mix together the egg yolks, olive oil, and 3 tablespoons of the water in a measuring cup or other spouted container. Start the food processor running, and pour in the liquids through the feed tube (scrape in all the drippings). Process for 30 to 40 seconds, until a dough forms and gathers on the blade. If the dough does not gather on the blade or process easily, it is too wet or too dry. Feel the dough, then work in either more flour or ice water, in small amounts, using the machine or kneading by hand.

　　

Step 2

Turn the dough out on a lightly floured surface, and knead by hand for a minute, until it’s smooth, soft, and stretchy. Press it into a disk, wrap well in plastic wrap, and let rest at room temperature for 1/2 hour. (You can refrigerate the dough for up to a day, or freeze it for a month or more. Defrost in the refrigerator and return to room temperature before rolling.)

　　

Step 3

Cut the dough in four equal pieces. Keeping the dough lightly floured, roll each piece through a pasta machine at progressively narrower settings into sheets that are 5 inches wide (or as wide as your machine allows) and at least 20 inches long. Cut each strip crosswise into three shorter rectangles, about 7 inches long.

　　

Step 4

Flour the rectangles, and roll them up the long way, into loose cylinders, like fat cigars. With a sharp knife, cut cleanly through the rolled dough crosswise at 1/8-to-1/4-inch intervals. Shake and unroll the cut pieces, opening them into tajarin ribbons, each about 7 inches long and 1/4 inch wide. Dust them liberally with flour, and set them on a floured towel or tray.

　　

Step 5

To cook the tajarin, bring to the boil 6 quarts of water with the tablespoon salt. Meanwhile, melt the butter in the large skillet, and dilute it with 1/3 cup of the hot pasta water. Heat until barely simmering.

　　

Step 6

When the pasta water is at a rolling boil, shake the tajarin in a colander to remove excess flour, and drop them all at once into the pot. Stir well to separate the ribbons, and bring back to the boil. Cook for only a minute, or until the pasta is just al dente, then lift it from the water with a spider, drain briefly, and drop it into the skillet.

　　

Step 7

Over low heat, toss the tajarin until well coated with butter. Turn off the heat, and toss in half the grated cheese. Shave coin-sized flakes of truffle—using half the piece—over the pasta, and toss in.

　　

Step 8

Heap individual portions of pasta into warm bowls. Quickly shave the remaining truffle, in equal shares, on top of each mound of tajarin, and serve immediately.

　　From Lidia's Italy by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich. Copyright (c) 2007 by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich. Published by Knopf.Lidia Bastianich hosts the hugely popular PBS show, "Lidia's Italian-American Kitchen" and owns restaurants in New York City, Kansas City, and Pittsburgh. Also the author of Lidia's Italian Table and Lidia's Italian-American Kitchen, she lives in Douglaston, New York.