Corzetti (in Ligurian also croxetti, crusètti in Varese Ligure) are a fresh Ligurian pasta: thin discs embossed with a carved wooden stamp. The pattern is not only decoration, it makes ridges that hold the sauce. It is the typical pasta of the Ligurian Levante, the eastern coast.
Watch the name: in the Val Polcevera, behind Genoa, “corzetti” means a different pasta, small, shaped like a figure of eight and made by hand without a stamp. Below you find the recipe for the stamped discs, the one most people mean, and the Polcevera version under variations.
- Origin: Liguria; stamped in the Levante and Varese Ligure, figure-of-eight in the Val Polcevera
- Total time: about 55 minutes, including resting the dough
- Servings: 4
- Difficulty: easy, but stamping takes a little patience
- Key ingredients: flour, egg, white wine; pesto or walnut sauce to dress
- When: all year
Ingredients
For 4 people
- 300 g 00 flour
- 1 whole egg
- 50 ml white wine
- 50 ml lukewarm water
- A few chopped marjoram leaves (optional)
- Semolina or flour for the tray
- Genoese basil sauce (pesto) or walnut sauce, enough to dress
You also need a corzetti stamp (two wooden parts: a concave one that cuts the disc and a stamp that presses the pattern). No stamp? See the tips.
How to make it
- Pile the flour in a mound and break the egg in the centre: beat it lightly with a fork.
- Add the wine and the lukewarm water a little at a time, drawing in the flour from the edges; add the marjoram if you use it.
- Knead until the dough is smooth and soft, shape a ball and cover it.
- Rest the dough at room temperature for at least 30 minutes.
- Roll the dough out on a floured surface, thin: between 1.5 and 2 mm.
- Cut out discs with the concave part of the stamp.
- Press each disc between the two parts of the stamp to emboss the pattern.
- Lay the corzetti on a tray dusted with semolina or flour and let them dry for a few minutes.
- Cook them in plenty of salted boiling water for 2–3 minutes, then taste: if you let them dry for a long time they need more.
- Drain and dress them straight away with your sauce.
Tips and common mistakes
- Dough neither sticky nor crumbly. If it sticks add flour; if it crumbles add a drop of lukewarm water.
- Roll it thin. If it is too thick the pattern is lost and the disc stays hard in the middle.
- Stamp on a clean, floured surface and shake off excess flour: on wet pasta the pattern smudges.
- Do not overcook: they are thin discs. The pattern fades a little after boiling, but it still helps the sauce cling.
- Dress immediately. Cooked and dressed corzetti should be eaten at once; raw ones can be frozen and cooked straight from the freezer.
- No stamp? Cut discs with a cutter or a glass and press them with a stamp that does not cut: simpler, still good pasta.
Variations
There is no single recipe: sources differ and every family has its own.
- Stamped Levante corzetti. The recipe above. In Varese Ligure the dough used few eggs, with butter and Parmigiano; in the Oltregiogo area around Novi Ligure white wine went into the dough.
- Val Polcevera corzetti. Small figure-of-eight pieces about 1 cm long, made by hand: pinch off chickpea-sized bits of dough, roll them between your palms and squeeze the middle with index finger and thumb. One source gives 500 g flour, 3 eggs and lukewarm water. They are also called “tiae co e dië”, pulled with the fingers.
- Eggless dough. Just flour and lukewarm water (400 g flour to 200 ml water is one proportion you find), with a little oil.
- Other dough choices: yolks only, butter instead of oil, sparkling water, boiled potato in the dough. Saffron in the dough is a modern choice, not a rule.
Traditional sauces
- Genoese basil sauce (pesto): the best known; see our page on pesto genovese.
- Walnut sauce: the same used for pansoti.
- Pine nut sauce (common in the Levante) and marjoram and pine nut pesto.
- Mushroom sauce (tocco de funzi) and meat tocco, white or red.
- Butter and sage, if you want the pattern in the spotlight.
History and origin
The origin is debated. The name may come from crocetta, the little cross that often decorated the disc, or from the corzetto, a 14th-century Genoese coin; these are different explanations and none is certain.
Similar pasta appears in the Middle Ages: the Liber de coquina, an anonymous 14th-century treatise, mentions Provençal crosets. A document in the Genoa State Archive dated 1362 is said to list them among the costs of an official lunch for ambassadors of Morocco, according to Pietro Picetti.
Noble families had stamps carved with the family crest, handed down and sometimes given as a dowry. Kitchen stamps were made of hard, non-tannic wood (pear, apple, beech, olive). In Varese Ligure a workshop still carves them by hand.
Where to try them in Liguria
Stamped corzetti are a dish of the Ligurian Levante and the La Spezia hinterland. Handy places to look are Genoa, Chiavari and Sestri Levante, as well as La Spezia, behind which lies Varese Ligure. We name no places because we have not verified an up-to-date list: ask in a trattoria that cooks traditionally whether they make them in-house.
For Val Polcevera corzetti start in Genoa: our page on what to eat in Genoa gives the picture of the city’s food. For the rest of the regional cuisine see Ligurian cuisine, with other pasta such as mandilli de sea and testaroli.
What to drink
With pesto or walnut sauce, fresh Ligurian whites such as Vermentino work well: see our guide to Ligurian wines.
Frequently asked questions
Corzetti or croxetti: which is right?
They are the same pasta. “Croxetti” is the Ligurian spelling, “corzetti” the Italian one; in Varese Ligure you also hear “crusètti”.
What is the difference between stamped corzetti and Val Polcevera corzetti?
The first are thin discs with an embossed pattern made with a wooden stamp. The second are small figure-of-eight pieces about 1 cm long, shaped by hand with no stamp.
Can I make them without a stamp?
Yes: cut the discs with a cutter or a glass. For a pattern you can press a coin or a stamp that does not cut, but it is not the same.
What sauce goes with them?
Genoese pesto, walnut or pine nut sauce, mushroom sauce, meat tocco, or simply butter and sage.
Do they need eggs?
No: sources give versions with one egg, yolks only or no eggs (flour and water). This recipe uses one egg and white wine.
Can I freeze them?
Raw, yes, and cook them straight from the freezer. Cooked and dressed, eat them at once.
Where do I buy a stamp?
Wooden stamps are sold in Ligurian craft workshops (there is one in Varese Ligure) and in kitchen shops; check the wood is hard and non-tannic.