Trip to Italy this summer was fabulous. Our house was in the north west corner of Tuscany. Much to our delight we discovered that we were in the Lunigiana region. One of the specialties of this region is testaroli which I read about in the Michelin guide, a pasta dish served with pesto and peccorino. Naturally, Dr. Sue wanted to try it. Aulla was our shopping town. In the window of a little grocery store with the door guarded by a beaded curtain I saw a sign for "Testaroli." Using my best Italian "(testaroli?") the store owner nodded her head yes and reached into a shelf behind her. She brought out a package that looked like a flat brown boboli that had been run over by a truck, turned to rubber, and shrink wrapped. Expecting something that looked like pasta as I know it, I was most surprised. Somehow I managed to ask her how to prepare it and she proceeded to give me a cooking lesson in Italian. As a fellow cook I followed her exactly. Knife - cutting gesture - cut the giant pancake into squares. Hand gestures of a large rapidly boiling pot of water. Drop in for due minutes. Pesto? She had a large tub of beautiful green pesto and she ladled some into a container. Peccorino? NO! NO! PARMEGGIANO!!! I agreed and she grated a hunk of Parmesan for me. She asked how many people I was serving. I told her 4. She indicated that one testaroli was not sufficient and that I needed 2. I opted for 1 since this was an experiment. We went home and I followed her directions and put together the ingredients. The testaroli was amazing. The rubbery chunks of the brown crepe floated to the top of the pot in about 3 minutes. Drain, added the pesto, olive oil per her instructions, and the Parmesan. See above for the results. I was so thrilled that we returned to her store. I showed her this photo on my I-phone of the finished dish. She got out her glasses, studied the photo, and gave me the equivalent of an Italian cheer. I bought 2 more Testarolo packets to take back home. I prepared testaroli last night for our daughter's birthday celebration. Everyone loved them. Two testarolo packets served 7 adults and 2 toddlers. I made a combination of home-made pesto and Trader Joes from the refridgerated case and pulsed an chunk of Italian Parmesan in the Cuisinart. The proportions - pretend you are Italian and have fun with these wonderful ingredients. Now am trying to find out how to mail order more or send emissaries to Aulla to purchase. If anyone knows how to buy testaroli when you live in the U.S. please let me know. Yayy for travel. Yayy for Italy. Yayy for testaroli.
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