English

by Silvia Donati

Bologna’s Chamber of Commerce, located inside the Palazzo della Mercanzia, which was once the merchants’ square, guards the traditional recipes of the city, registered with notary deeds.

Among them is a type of pasta that is synonymous with the city: tagliatella bolognese. Actually, the first official recipe registered with the Chamber of Commerce, on April 16, 1972, was precisely that of the tagliatella.

The recipe for the dough calls for:

(ingredients for four people)

400 gr flour

4 eggs

A pinch of salt

½ spoon of flour to work the dough

But the official recipe also specifies the width that the authentic tagliatella should have: 8mm (0.314 inch) when cooked, or the 12,270th part of the height of the Asinelli Tower, a Bologna landmark. How do you get to that measurement? It has to be between 6 ½ and 7 mm (0.255-0.275 inch) when you cut the dough in strips depending on how hard the dough has turned out.

This measurement has even been reproduced in a golden tagliatella sample on display at the Chamber of Commerce. “Any other size,” says the deed, “would make it lose its inimitable character.”

When was the tagliatella invented? According to legend, it was invented by the Bolognese chef Zefirano, who was inspired by Lucrezia Borgia’s blonde hairdo, when she came to Bologna in 1487 to marry the duke of Ferrara, Alfonso I d’Este. But this is just a legend, invented by the Bolognese humorist and illustrator Augusto Majani in 1931.

We don’t really know how the tagliatella came to be, but what we know is that, in the 19th century, it was a common dish in the entire area of Bologna.

If you, like the Bolognesi, are a big fan of tagliatella, you should know that there is even a day set aside for its celebration: January 17, International Tagliatella Day.