Tajarin al Ragù di Salsiccia

Tajarin is the pasta of Piedmont, and it is unlike anything else in Italy. The dough contains so many egg yolks that it glows golden, almost orange. The strands are cut so fine they seem impossible to handle. This is not tagliatelle. This is something older and more particular, a pasta that belongs to the hills of the Langhe and Monferrato, where the wines are great and the cooking is rooted in the farmhouse.

The extravagance of egg yolks was not always extravagance. Farm women had eggs in abundance. What they lacked was white flour, which was expensive. So they stretched their flour with yolks, and in doing so created something extraordinary. The texture is silky in a way that pasta made with whole eggs cannot match. The flavor is rich, almost buttery, before you add a drop of butter.

The sausage ragù that dresses this pasta is simple. Crumbled pork sausage, a soffritto, red wine from the local hills, restrained tomato. Nothing complicated. The pasta is the star. The ragù exists to support it, not to compete.