Maccarrones de Busa, fresh Sardinian pasta - Ecopasta - Sardinian handmade pasta

Maccarrones de Busa, Sardinian handmade pasta made in Nuoro.

This pasta takes its name from the tool with which it is prepared and that is the ferretto, which in Sardinian is called "busa" or "ferrittu".
It originates in Barbagia, an internal and mysterious area of ​​Sardinia known for the typical mask of the Carnival, the Mamuttones.

I maccarrones de Busa or maccaronis al ferretto is a homemade pasta made from durum wheat semolina, like most Sardinian pasta. It is similar to pasta bucatini, bucatoni or perciatelli, 2 to 3 cm long and 3 to 5 mm thick.
For their preparation we press small noodles of dough around knitting needles (the busa) in order to obtain this particular shape.
The thickness of the thickness and of the cavity depends on the tools (on ferrittu) and the processing. The "bucata" pasta allows to collect as much seasoning as possible.
In the preparation I use a radius of the bicycle, so as to obtain maccarrones with thinner and more subtle cavities, certainly more delicate.
The pastry is wrapped around the irons, it is extracted and put to dry.
Often this pasta is cooked in sheep's broth, with a sauce of lamb or veal ragù and plenty of grated pecorino. La Busa is also consumed with rich tomato sauces and wild boar meat.

Maccarrones de Busa, fresh Sardinian pasta - Ecopasta - Sardinian food

The absolute best known and consumed pasta in Italy is the dry one, the pasta that all Italians consume daily or almost is obtained by drying the finished product, ie the evaporation of a part of the water contained in it, until reaching a moisture content of less than 14%, beyond which the product is unaffected by biological agents. For this reason dry pasta has a conservation of many months.
The fresh pasta, on the contrary, is prepared and immediately consumed, without undergoing any type of drying: the moisture content is about 30% higher than the dry pasta, which makes it attackable by bacteria and mold. The fresh pasta that does not undergo any type of treatment should therefore be kept in the refrigerator and has a limited duration of a few days. The production of fresh pasta in Sardinia has a strong handicraft prevalence with a strong manual contribution and the use of local raw materials that give a precious added value to the product. The fresh pasta can also be pasteurized and packaged in a protective atmosphere, extending the date of expiry that varies from 3 to 6 weeks or can be frozen with a quick abatement of the temperature and can be kept for up to 6 months. Fresh pasta can be rolled (tagliatelle, tortelloni, lasagna, etc.), extruded (macaroni, pen, etc.) ), filled or not. The artisan laboratories sell, at the counter, a fresh, unpasteurized product, made at home and with a limited deadline. In our laboratory, we prepare, only with semolina, malloreddos, tagliatelle, orecchiette, maccarrones de busa and typical stuffed pasta: ravioli with cheese or ricotta, culurgiones and sebadas.