A homely pasta-and-bean pot of Molise: flat diamonds or squares of eggless dough, the taccozze, cooked in a soupy stew of borlotti or cannellini beans with a little tomato, garlic and olive oil. It is cucina povera at its plainest — flour, water and dried beans stretched into a warming one-pot meal — somewhere between a thick soup and a dressed pasta, depending on how much liquid is left. Cheap, filling and nourishing, it was an everyday winter dish of the inland farms and is still cooked at home, finished with a thread of raw oil and, if wanted, a dusting of pecorino.
Taccozze e fagioli belongs to the grain-and-legume cooking of inland Molise, where dried beans and home-rolled pasta were pantry staples and pasta e fagioli in its many forms was everyday food. The taccozze are simply a flat sheet of eggless flour-and-water dough cut into squares or lozenges — the name, like the Abruzzese taccozzelle, comes from the dialect for these small flat pieces — and the dish has no single author, being a household recipe of cucina povera carried through generations across Molise and neighbouring Abruzzo. Pairing pasta with beans is one of the oldest economical formulas of central and southern Italy, valued for turning cheap staples into a complete, sustaining meal; precise origins are local tradition rather than documented record.
Warming, soft and comforting. The taccozze are tender but with a slight chew where the eggless dough holds its body, slippery little flats that mix through the beans, and the beans themselves are creamy and soft, some broken down to thicken the pot. The broth is light and savoury, sweetened by long-cooked tomato and rounded with garlic and olive oil; a finishing thread of raw oil gives a green, peppery lift and a grating of pecorino adds salt and sharpness. A good bowl is brothy but substantial, the pasta and beans in balance; too long on the heat and the pasta goes soft and the whole thing turns to mush.
Two slow processes meet in the pot. The dried beans are softened by long soaking and gentle simmering, which hydrates the starch and softens the cell walls so they turn creamy; a portion breaking down releases starch that thickens the broth into something between soup and sauce. The eggless flour-and-water dough is kneaded firm and rested so it rolls thin and the squares keep their shape, then cooked directly in the bean liquid, where the pasta's own starch further thickens the pot and the flats take on the flavour of the broth. A soffritto of garlic in olive oil and the long-cooked tomato build the savoury base; finishing with raw oil off the heat preserves its fresh, peppery aroma, which gentle simmering would otherwise drive off.
Variations
The bean is a matter of pantry and place — borlotti, cannellini or the local cicerchia (grass pea) — and the dish runs from soupy and brothy to thick and almost dry depending on the liquid; a chilli or a little pork rind or pancetta is sometimes added for depth. The taccozze are the same flat squares known in Abruzzo as taccozzelle and elsewhere as quadrucci or sagne, and the same dough is cut wider for taccozze with other sauces. Close cousins run all through the central and southern repertoire — pasta e fagioli, lagane e ceci, ciceri e tria — all marrying a hand-cut pasta with a legume to make a cheap and complete meal.
On the Palate
Where Taccozze e Fagioli sits in the Italian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4How it's made
7 steps · 50 min
- 1600 min
Soak dried borlotti or cannellini beans overnight in plenty of cold water.
- 275 min
Drain and simmer the beans gently in fresh water until tender, about an hour, with a clove of garlic; season with salt near the end.
Watch outSimmer the beans until some break down and turn creamy — the freed starch thickens the pot to that soup-sauce body; undercook them and it stays watery.
- 335 min
Make a firm dough of flour and water, knead until smooth and rest, covered, for 30 minutes.
- 415 min
Roll the dough out thin and cut into small squares or diamonds, the taccozze.
- 512 min
In a pot, soften garlic in olive oil, add chopped tomato and a little of the bean liquid, and simmer to a light sauce.
- 615 min
Add the beans with enough of their liquid to make it brothy, bring to a simmer, then cook the taccozze directly in the pot until tender.
Watch outCook the taccozze directly in the bean liquid — the pasta's own starch further thickens the pot while the squares soak up the broth's flavor.
- 73 min
Adjust the salt, finish with a thread of raw olive oil and pepper, and serve with grated pecorino if liked.
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