Introduction Frank Sinatra’s love of pesto is legendary, and he never liked it more than when paired with silk handkerchief pasta. It's one of the most luxurious, elegant, and graceful foodstuffs you will find anywhere on earth.
Called mandilli de saea in the Genovese dialect (but sometimes called fazzoletti di seta or lasagnette), some say this Ligurian style of pasta is one of the most perfect pairings for pesto you can get.
We understand the temptation to try and cheat by using shop-bought lasagna sheets, but you will end up seriously disappointed. The whole charm of silk handkerchief pasta dish is that the sheets are so thin you can practically read a newspaper through them, and the only way you're going to achieve that is by making them yourself.
Recommended equipment Dough scraper Digital kitchen scales Pasta machine
Pro tip One egg for every 100g of flour is the standard formula for making fresh pasta, but because eggs vary in size so much, we opt for a belt and braces approach and weigh exactly 57g of egg for every 100g of flour.
Tip the flour onto a scrupulously clean work surface and make a well in the centre. Beat the eggs and pour them onto the well along with a generous pinch of salt.
Using a fork, start to combine the egg and flour by stirring in a circular motion, taking in small amounts of the flour from the edges as you go.
When the mixture starts to turn into a thick paste, switch your fork for a dough scraper and continue to combine the egg and flour, using a chopping motion and scraping in flour from the outsides as you go.
When the dough is well combined, bring it together with your hands and knead for a good 5-minutes. Add a little flour or water if the dough feels too sticky or too dry.
Wrap the dough in cling film and allow it to rest at room temperature for 30-minutes.
Unwrap the rested dough, place on a floured work surface and knead for a few more minutes.
Divide the dough into quarters and wrap three of the pieces in clingfilm.
Take your piece of dough and start cranking through your pasta machine, moving through the settings from the largest to the thinnest. (If you don't have a pasta machine, a rolling pin works just fine.)
Once you have the pasta as thin as humanly possible, cut the sheets into perfectly uniform 4-inch squares. Alternatively you can just roughly tear the sheets if you're in more of a rustic mood.
Dust each piece with a little flour and set aside whilst you repeat the process with the remaining three pieces of dough.
Bring a pan of salted water to a boil and add the pasta sheets. Cook until al dente, around 2-4 minutes depending how thin you’ve managed to get the dough.
Warm the pesto gently in a large pan and add the pasta sheets along with a tablespoon of the starchy water it cooked in.
Mix the pasta and pesto well and plate up, grating some Parmesan on top as a final flourish.
Recipe Note
For maximum authenticity, serve this dish with some Ligurian Pigato wine.
