Fazzoletti
faht-soh-LET-tee
Also known as fazzoletti di seta, mandilli de saea, mandilli di sea, silk handkerchiefs.
Measured to scale. The illustrated portrait is in production.
Specifications
thin flat square or rectangular sheet of rolled dough
What it is
Fazzoletti are thin square or rectangular sheets of pasta named for the handkerchief they resemble. In Liguria they carry the dialect name mandilli de saea, silk handkerchiefs, and the Italian fazzoletti di seta. Italian sources note that in Liguria the lasagne take the name mandilli de saea and are usually dressed with Genovese pesto or simply a little tomato. Food writers link the silk image to Genoa's medieval maritime trade, when the republic moved silk along its routes, though that naming story is tradition rather than documented record. Unlike lasagne baked in layers, the sheets are boiled a few at a time and plated loose under their sauce.
Fazzoletto means handkerchief, and fazzoletti is its plural. Wiktionary and Treccani trace the word through the older Italian fazzolo or fazzuolo, with Wiktionary carrying it back through Vulgar Latin faciolum to Latin facies, face. Treccani defines a fazzoletto first by its shape, a quadrato di tela, a square of cloth. The Ligurian name mandilli rests on a parallel root: Treccani records mandillo, regional, as another word for fazzoletto.
What sauce it wants, and why
A fazzoletto is a wide, very thin sheet, so it presents a large flat face to its dressing rather than a groove or a twist to trap it. That face suits a smooth coating sauce that can film across the whole surface, which is why Genovese pesto is the classic match. Loose folds catch a little extra sauce as the sheet drapes on the plate. Chunky or heavy meat sauces sit less evenly on so delicate a sheet, so they are better left to sturdier cuts.
Classic plates: mandilli de saea al pesto.
No fazzoletti? Use these
Closest swaps by sauce behavior, not by looks. The ones most easily confused with fazzoletti, and how they read.
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