The first time we saw scialatielli on a plate in Amalfi, they looked to us like slightly unruly tagliatelle: thick, irregular, twisted. Then we tasted them with seafood and understood why they have become the symbol of the cooking of the Amalfi Coast.
A young pasta with an ancient soul
Scialatielli have a recent history. They were created by the Amalfi chef Enrico Cosentino between the late 1960s and the 1970s, and in 1978 the recipe won him a prize at an international cookery competition. Since then they have spread all along the Coast and today they are recognised as a traditional food product of Campania.
There are two explanations for the name: some trace it to scialare, meaning to enjoy oneself, others to the Neapolitan sciglià, to tousle, because on the plate they look like a head of messy hair.
The ingredients
For the dough (serves 4):
- 400 g of finely re-milled durum wheat semolina
- about 180 ml of milk
- one egg, a tablespoon of grated cheese, a drizzle of oil
- a few leaves of chopped basil
For the Amalfi-style sauce:
- 500 g of mussels and 500 g of clams
- 200 g of squid or flying squid, a few prawns
- cherry tomatoes, garlic, extra virgin olive oil, parsley, chilli
The traditional method
- Knead the semolina, milk, egg, cheese, oil and basil until you have a smooth ball of dough. Leave it to rest, covered, for half an hour.
- Roll out the dough to about half a centimetre thick and cut strips about ten centimetres long and a few millimetres wide. Dust with semolina.
- Open the mussels and clams in a pan with garlic and oil; set the strained liquid aside.
- Brown the squid rings, add the chopped cherry tomatoes and then the shellfish liquid.
- Cook the scialatielli in salted water for a few minutes, drain them al dente and toss them in the sauce with the seafood and parsley.
The variations
Originally scialatielli were dressed with vegetables: courgettes and onion, or fried aubergines. The seafood sauce caught on later, but today it is the most popular. In homes along the Coast you will also find versions with prawns and lemon, which go beautifully with the scent of the Limone Costa d'Amalfi.
Where to taste them and nearby
You will find them in every town on the Coast, from Positano to Maiori and Minori, and in Cetara it is worth pairing them with other flavours of the sea such as the Colatura di alici di Cetara, the famous anchovy sauce. To get to know the local produce, discover the Amalfi Coast IGP lemon and the typical dishes of Salerno; for the cooking of the regional capital, there are the classic Neapolitan dishes. To discover the town where they were born, start from Amalfi: what to do and what to see and Salerno and its surroundings.
Photo at the top (Amalfi): No machine-readable author provided. Sudodana2048 assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.