Home-made pasta for six people
1 lb. flour
2 or preferably 3 eggs
A pinch of salt
Lukewarm water

Filling
3/4 lb. cottage cheese
1/2 lb. sausages
Grated Parmesan

Tomato sauce
1/2 cup tomato sauce for tossing

To make dough

"You will need a fairly large pastry board, and a longer-than-usual rolling pin. The following quantities [above recipe ingredients] will give you sufficient tagliatelle, the most usual type of home-made pasta for six people. Pile your flour in a mound on your pastry board, making a well in the middle into which break your eggs, adding salt, and to start with a couple of tablespoons of lukewarm water. Fold the flour over the eggs and water and knead until the liquid is used up. If the paste is too stiff, add a little more water, but be careful not to 'drown' it. When the paste can be formed into a fairly solid ball, its consistency is right. You should now knead it, flouring your hands lightly from time to time, and flouring the board, for at least ten minutes; then, dividing it into two portions start the rolling process. It will need quite ten rollings and the board and roller should be lightly floured between rollings. Finally it should be thin enough, metaphorically speaking, to read the newspaper through it. Spread a floured cloth over the back of a chair and lay the paste over it while you proceed similarly with the other half. When both sheets are rolled thin, leave them to dry out half an hour, after which roll them up as you would a Swiss roll, or pinwheel biscuit mixture, and with a sharp knife cut across the roll at intervals of a quarter of an inch or less. Lay them on a floured cloth until you are ready to cook your tagliatelle, and remember, 5 to 7 minutes in boiling salted water will be ample. A useful hint ? if you have difficulty in finding a really long roller for pasta, a length of broomstick makes an excellent one, and for drying the pasta, again a length of broomstick resting on two chair backs, so that the pasta can hang over a cloth draped over the broomstick, is a useful dodge to remember."

To make cannelloni

"Although it is possible to buy the large 'channel' macaroni, and after a preliminary cooking to fill them with the filling mixture, the home-made variety is far preferable, and once again the recipe for pasta given under Tagliatelle may be used. But when it has had its final rolling it must be cut into oblongs about 4 inches by 3 inches, and cooked, a few at a time, in boiling salted water for four or five minutes, removed gently with a perforated spoon so as not to break them, and allowed to cool. For four people allow 20 to 24 cannelloni.

Prick the sausages and place them in a pan, cover with water, heat and allow to cook until the water has evaporated, then let the sausages remain a few minutes in the fat that will have escaped from them in the cooking. Cool slightly, skin and mash the filling and mix with the cheese. Place a little filling, about a tablespoonful, in the center of each piece of pasta, and roll up into a tube. Grease a flat fireproof dish well and in it place the cannelloni side by side, and over them pour tomato sauce, not quite sufficient to cover them; dot with butter and sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese, and place in moderate oven for 15 minutes before serving."

This recipe was taken from "Italian Cooking" by Dorothy Daly. It was published by Spring Books in Great Britain. For the complete copyright-free cookbook see www.archive.org.... P.S. It's interesting to note that Dorothy Daly was one of the first food writers to include a cannelloni recipe in her cookbook. Obviously, no one foresaw how popular this Italian pasta dish would become. Photo and notes: Mary Melfi.

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