Pizzoccheri
pit-TSOK-keh-ree
Also known as pizzoccheri della Valtellina.
Specifications
short flat buckwheat ribbon
What it is
A flat buckwheat ribbon pasta from Valtellina in Lombardy, classically baked with potato, cabbage or chard, and cheese. The sticky detail: Pizzoccheri della Valtellina holds EU PGI status, granted in 2016, and its production spec sets exact sizes for the standard dry ribbon at 30 to 60 mm long, 7 to 8 mm wide, and 1.1 to 1.7 mm thick. Treccani describes them as tagliatelle about three fingers long. They are first documented in 1550 in Ortensio Lando's catalogue of Italian foods.
Treccani treats pizzocchero as an archaic or regional variant of pinzochero, and the plural pizzoccheri names the Valtellina dish. Folk etymologies tie the word to roots meaning a small piece or to a sense of flattening, in reference to the pasta's shape, but Treccani gives no settled origin.
What sauce it wants, and why
The porous buckwheat surface and flat ribbon form grab melted cheese and butter rather than thin liquids. The pasta is boiled together with potato and cabbage or chard, so starch and vegetable bulk bind into the dish. Layered cheese melts into the rough ribbons and butter fried with garlic coats everything.
Classic plates: pizzoccheri della Valtellina.
No pizzoccheri? Use these
Closest swaps by sauce behavior, not by looks. The ones most easily confused with pizzoccheri, and how they read.
