Casunziei
Also known as casonziei, casoncei, casonciei, casanzes, csanzöi.
Measured to scale. The illustrated portrait is in production.
Specifications
half-moon parcel, two thin dough sheets pressed together at the rim like a raviolo and folded into a crescent
What it is
Casunziei are a half-moon stuffed pasta of the Ladin Dolomites, and the version best known beyond the mountains, casunziei all'ampezzana, carries a bright beet-red filling finished with melted butter, poppy seeds, and smoked ricotta. The name is Ladin, the language of the valleys around Cortina d'Ampezzo, in the province of Belluno. The filling shifts with the larder and the season: a red version built on beet, potato, and red Veronese turnip, and a green one of spinach and chives. Two thin sheets of dough are pressed together at the edges, the way a raviolo is, then folded into the crescent the shape is named for.
The name is Ladin, the language of the Ampezzo and Cadore valleys around Cortina. Standard Italian dictionaries record no separate etymology for it.
What sauce it wants, and why
The filling does the talking, a sweet earthy beet and potato mix, so the dressing stays spare and lets it through. The classic finish is hot melted butter, a scatter of poppy seeds, and grated smoked ricotta, which adds richness and a faint smoke without covering the beet. Where smoked ricotta is not to hand, grated Parmesan stands in. A long-cooked meat sauce would bury the delicate filling, so the mountain table keeps to butter.
Classic plates: casunziei all'ampezzana.
No casunziei? Use these
Closest swaps by sauce behavior, not by looks. The ones most easily confused with casunziei, and how they read.
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