Pasta shapes from Marche

Marche makes pasta with soft wheat flour and eggs, in the central Italian manner. Hand-rolled egg pasta is the base for the festive table. Tagliatelle, cappelletti with meat, ravioli with ricotta and spinach, and quadrelli come from the same sheet. Passatelli, a cord of breadcrumb and egg, are pressed straight into broth.

Maccheroncini di Campofilone are the signature shape. They come from one town in the province of Fermo. The dough holds at least 33 percent egg, about 7 to 10 eggs per kilo of flour. The sheet is cut into strands under 1.2 mm wide and dried slowly for 24 to 36 hours. They hold PGI status, and local records trace them to the fifteenth century. Vincisgrassi are the other emblem: a baked layered pasta, first printed in Antonio Nebbia's 1779 cookbook from Macerata.

Vincisgrassi differ from lasagne. The ragù uses meat cut by hand, not minced, with chicken giblets in the Macerata version. The bechamel is thicker and the nutmeg is strong. Tagliatelle with ragù is the Sunday dish. Gnocchi take tomato sauce or duck ragù. On the coast, spaghetti come with wild mussels, the moscioli. Pasta al fumé, a cream, pancetta, and tomato sauce, was invented in Castelplanio in 1978.