Spaghetti Montepulciano

Instructions

1. To make the pasta, place a mound of flour (semolina) on your work surface and make a well in the centre. Crack the eggs into the well and start whisking the eggs gently with the tines of a fork, incorporating a bit of flour at the same time. Drizzle in the wine as you combine the flour and eggs. Keep whisking with the fork, making an ever-widening circle as you incorporate more flour. The mixture will eventually become too thick for you to use the fork, so start using your fingertips, working the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until you have used up most of the dry ingredients and a ball of dough forms. You may need to add a bit of water or flour to get the right consistency. Kneed for about 5 minutes until it is smooth and elastic. Cover with an upturned bowl and allow to rest for at least 30 minutes.
2. To make the sauce, heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan over low heat, add the onion, celery and carrot and cook, stirring occasionally, for 20–25 minutes until the vegetables are starting to soften. Add the sausage meat and stir well, then increase the heat to medium–low and cook for about 20 minutes until the sausage pieces are cooked through and have released their liquid. Add salt and pepper to taste.
3. While the sauce is cooking, continue with the pasta. Cut the dough into thirds. Working with one portion at a time, roll it out on a surface that has been lightly dusted with superfine semolina. You can use a pasta machine or rolling pin to roll it to a 3-mm (¹⁄8 in) thickness. Place the rectangle of dough on the narrower strings of a chitarra and, using a rolling pin, press on the dough so that the metal strings cut it into strips. Dust the prepared pasta with superfine semolina and cover with a clean tea towel to prevent it from drying out. Repeat with the remaining dough. If you don’t have a chitarra, dust the pasta with superfine semolina, then loosely roll it up and cut it into 3-mm wide strips with a knife.
4. Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil. Drop in the pasta and cook until al dente (the cooking time will vary, depending on the thickness of the pasta). Drain, reserving a little of the pasta water in a cup. Toss the
   pasta through the sauce, either in the saucepan you cooked the pasta in or in a bowl, adding some of the reserved cooking water if it looks a bit dry. Pile onto a serving platter, scatter with parsley and plenty of grated parmesan and serve.