Tiltin

(Small Pasta Squares)

Translation:

Make a dough with flour, water, salt, and a little yeast.  Knead energetically and stretch it out on a table; the layer of dough should be extremely thin.  Using a knife, cut squares the size of two fingers and dry (them) in the sun.  Keep to be used as needed.

Zaouali, pp. 118

Ingredients:

1 cup flour                    ½ tsp salt                      1/3 cup water (more if necessary to moisten dough)                               1 tsp yeast

Redaction:

The dough was made by combining the flour, salt, water and yeast.

Then rolled out to form a very thin dough, roughly 1/16 inch in height.

When I rolled out the dough, I originally had added a bit more water then intended and had to over flour the board from which the dough was rolled out on.  The dough absorbed the extra flour with out detriment to the taste.  So a well floured bored is needed and if necessary a little extra can be added to help the dough’s formation.

After the dough was rolled out and evened up a bit, two fingers in width

(roughly 1 inch squares) were measured and cut with a knife.

Some of the dough squares stuck to the knife, so I did try these with a pizza cutter and had better success.  Sprinkling a little flour on the surface of the dough would also alleviate any sticking.

Once the squares were cut out,

cookie sheets were lined with parchment paper and a single layer of squares were placed there on.   Note: The recipe will make roughly enough pasta to fill two cookie sheets.

I took the cookie sheets to sit in the sun to dry.

I  found that the drying dough formed little air pockets on the under side (due to the yeast) so that the squares looked sort of like ravioli with out the stuffing.  Very cute!

If you prefer non-puffed squares just prick the freshly rolled and cut squares with a fork.  This will release any air building up from the yeast and warm sunny day working on the pasta.  I didn’t know to do that on this batch but I sort of like the little pillow look of these!

When the squares were thoroughly dried, they were placed in a glass jar for later use in soups and stews which call for pasta.