Pincinelle with Sausage and Dandelion: A Rustic Pasta from Italy’s Le Marche

At Cucinato, we love exploring and sharing the richness of Italian cuisine and the cultural traditions behind it. Italian cooking is famously regional, and every part of the country has its own ingredients, techniques, and stories that make it unique. Coming from Tuscany myself, I naturally gravitate toward the cuisines of Central Italy, and one of the things I enjoy most is inviting chefs to share recipes that reflect the food culture of their own region.

This time we’re heading just across the Apennines to Le Marche, a region that stretches from the mountains to the Adriatic Sea and is known for its deeply rooted rural cooking traditions. Marchigiana cuisine is wonderfully rustic and seasonal, built around ingredients that farmers and home cooks have relied on for generations. Wild herbs and foraged greens play an important role here, including dandelion, which add a pleasantly bitter note to many traditional dishes. One of those dishes is pincinelle, a humble handmade pasta whose name comes from the "hand-pinched" shape that gives the noodles their rustic texture—perfect for holding rich sauces like the sausage and dandelion ragù we’re sharing today.

The recipe comes from Chef Marco Marani, who grew up in Fabriano, a historic town in the heart of Le Marche. Marco’s cooking is deeply rooted in the traditions of his region and the recipes he grew up with in his family kitchen. After years working in the restaurant world in Italy and abroad, he continues to draw inspiration from the simple, ingredient-driven dishes of his childhood—recipes that celebrate the flavours of the Marche countryside and the seasonal ingredients that define its cuisine.

Marco will be joining us at Cucinato to share these flavours in person during an upcoming Marche regional cooking class, which he will lead together with Cucinato’s own Gaia Massai. During the class, guests will learn to prepare several traditional dishes from the region—including handmade pincinelle—before sitting down together to enjoy the meal we’ve cooked. It’s always one of our favourite ways to experience Italian food culture: cooking together, learning the stories behind the dishes, and sharing them around the table.

If you’d like to join us, you can find more details about the class here:
https://cucinato.ca/collections/cooking-classes-dinners-tasting-events/products/marche-cooking-class-sat-apr-18

In the meantime, here is Chef Marco’s recipe for Pincinelle con Salsiccia e Dente di Leone, a dish that perfectly captures the rustic spirit of Marche cooking.

Pincinelle con salsiccia e dente di leone 

Homemade pinched pasta with sausage and dandelion 

6 portions  

For the Homemade pasta: 

500g 00 Flour 
250ml Warm water 
Pinch of salt 

For the ragu’: 

400g pork sausage sweet (casing removed) 
2 dandelion bunches  
1 Garlic clove 
1/2 glass Varnelli (or dry anise liqueur) 
Extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), salt, black pepper 
Grated Pecorino cheese to finish  

Instructions 

1. Pour the flour onto a work surface and shape it into a mound with a large well in the centre.  
2. Add the water and salt to the well and, using a fork, stir slowly starting from the centre and gradually picking up more flour from the edges. 
3. When the dough turns crumbly, switch to kneading with your hands. You want to knead the dough until it forms a ball, the gluten starts to develop, and the dough feels elastic.  
4. Continue kneading until you have clean hands and a clean board and the dough is smooth, silky, matte white, and no longer sticky, about 15 minutes. It should spring back when pressed. If it is too stiff, add water a few drops at a time and knead it in. 
5. Cover the dough with an upturned bowl and let rest for 30 minutes. 
6. Roll out a thick sheet, cut into strips, and roll/pinch them by hand to create the traditional irregular "choked" shape.  
7. While the dough is resting, blanch the dandelion greens to remove excess bitterness, drain, and chop.  
8. Sauté the garlic in EVOO, then add the sausage. Once well browned, deglaze with Varnelli liquer. 
9. Add the dandelion greens, season with salt and pepper, and cook for 10 minutes.  
10. Toss the boiled pasta in the sauce and finish with pecorino cheese.