Pasta school 11: Make your own croxetti

Croxetti stampati – stamped pasta

In a previous blog post, we already took a closer look at the croxetti pasta shape. In our 10th lesson of the pasta school, we will now explain how to make stamped pasta yourself. Unfortunately, this shape is still relatively unknown in Germany, although it is certainly one of the most decorative pasta shapes in Italian cuisine. First of all, there is the problem of where to get the croxetti stamps. On our travels through Italy, we are more focused on the end products, so unfortunately we haven’t brought any with us yet. So that we could still prepare the coin pasta from Liguria, one of our employees quickly sat down, designed two molds and had them printed out on the 3D printer at Shapeways. We then even had a stamp with our logo.

Make your own croxetti

Recipe for pasta dough – make your own croxetti

There are several recipes for pasta dough on the internet if you want to make croxetti yourself. Some of them contain egg. However, we asked Venturino in Liguria and he only uses durum wheat flour and water. So that’s what we did. Use approx. 60 ml of water for 100 g of durum wheat flour/fine durum wheat semolina. Mix the two together and patiently knead into a smooth dough. As usual, you can also color the pasta. Then wrap the dough in cling film so that there is no air between the dough and the film. Then leave the pasta dough to rest in the fridge for at least half an hour.

Stamping croxetti pasta

Regardless of whether you use an original wooden Croxetti stamp or one from the 3D printer, the dough must first be rolled out to a thickness of 2 – 3 mm. This can be done with a pasta machine or a rolling pin. Don’t forget to flour the work surface and the surface of the rolled-out dough well. Then it’s time to cut out the pasta:
A Croxetti stamp always consists of two parts: A cutter and the embossing stamp. First cut out circles with the cutter. Just like with Christmas cookies – the closer you place the circles together, the fewer scraps you will have to roll out for the next round.
Now the preparation methods separate: If you are using the Ligurian wooden stamp, place the dough circle on top and press down on it with the opposite piece, embossing the pattern into the dough as you would with a coin. The dough may stick to the stamp a little, in which case simply tap it off. You can also just press the stamped piece onto the dough on the work surface. If you want to emboss both sides of the croxetti, place the disc of dough on one stamp and press the other onto it.
Leave the finished croxetti to dry on a kitchen towel. You can find recipes for sauces to accompany the pasta from Liguria in our blog post about croxetti. The recipe for pesto alla genovese in our recipe collection is also a good place to start.