Fuži – traditional handmade Istrian fresh pasta Recipe

Fuži (together with bleki and pljukanci) is a traditional and very well renowned type of Istrian fresh pasta from Slovenia and Croatia. It uses only two ingredients, it is easy and fun to make, and its shape is really beautiful.

Traditionally it is homemade, and hand rolled with a wooden rolling pin, but these days pasta machine is frequently used for practical reasons.

The origin of the name fuži comes from Latin word fusus, meaning a spindle.

This recipe for fresh pasta is great for the beginners, as there really is nothing daunting about making it, and children love getting involved too.

Generally, when we think of pasta, we have in mind a quick mid-week meal. This type of pasta, however, has been usually made in the households during festivities, holidays or as a Sunday lunch, and it has been traditionally served with chicken or rabbit goulash and sautéed sauerkraut.

It is also very commonly enjoyed with venison stew, braised pheasant, classic beef goulash, asparagus (in Istria wild asparagus when in season), cured ham or pancetta cream-based sauce, mushroom creamy sauce, and of course, the Istrian luxurious white truffle creamy sauce, popular in the autumn.

This pasta is also very delicious paired with any vegetarian and fish-based sauces or any other sauce you might like (different types of pesto).

I am sharing here the recipe for fuži, a fresh homemade pasta that holds a very special place in Istrian gastronomy, and it is frequently found in local restaurants.

Ingredients

Serves 2-4

• 300g plain (all purpose) white flour

• 3 medium eggs

You will also need a wooden kebab stick, or a wooden spoon, to shape the fuži.

Method

Place the flour directly on a working surface, wooden board or a mixing bowl, and make a well in the centre.

Crack the eggs directly into a well.

Using a fork, mix the eggs with the flour, incorporating a little at a time, until everything is combined, and the dough comes together.

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Transfer the dough onto a working surface and start kneading. It could take around 10 minutes of kneading for the gluten to develop in the flour and to get a smooth and elastic lump of dough.

Wrap the dough tightly with the cling film or a clean cotton kitchen cloth and let it rest for about 30 minutes at the room temperature.

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Unwrap the dough and divide it into 4 pieces. Take one piece of the dough and cover the rest of the dough that you are not working with, with the cling film to prevent it from drying and cracking.

With your hands flatten the piece of the dough you are working with to a thickness of about 0.5cm and lightly dust with flour to prevent it from sticking.

Put the flattened piece of the dough through pasta machine on the widest setting. If you don't have pasta machine, use a rolling pin.

Fold the dough in half, keep rollers on the widest setting, and roll the dough again through the pasta machine.

Flour as needed to prevent sticking, and keep rolling pasta dough through pasta machine reducing the width of the rollers one setting at a time.

Continue rolling until pasta dough has been rolled through the thinnest setting.

At this stage you should end up with a very thin pasta (lasagna) sheet.

Place pasta sheet on a working surface.

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With a sharp knife (I used pizza cutter wheel) cut the pasta sheet into 4cm (1½ inch) squares.

Take a wooden kebab stick (some prefer to use the handle of a wooden spoon) and place it on the edge of the pasta square.

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Gently roll the stick to get a shape of a fuži, then remove the stick.

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Repeat the process with other pasta squares (during this process try to avoid a lot of flour as this will prevent the opposite sides of the pasta square to stick together).

The idea behind shaping this pasta is that the opposite ends of the squares/diamonds are folded over each other, overlapping slightly, and sticking together forming a hollow shaped fuži.

Repeat the process with other pieces of dough.

Just a thought

Fuži can be made ahead of time and frozen. Make sure you place and spread the uncooked fuži in a single layer (so they do not stick together) on a floured baking tray (sheet), wooden board or similar. Place them in the freezer for at least 20-30 minutes, and once frozen separately, put them into freezing bags. When you want to cook them just drop them frozen directly into boiling salted water without defrosting them first.

You can also store already cooked fuži. Cook fresh pasta as soon you make it, drain it and place it in an airtight container, drizzle with a bit of oil and gave a container a little shake. Let it cool completely, cover with the lid, and store in the fridge for a couple of days (the pasta will turn slightly greyish in colour, do not get alarmed, this is perfectly normal).

You can also dry the pasta. Place freshly made fuži onto a floured baking sheet or wooden board and cover the shaped pasta with a clean kitchen towel and let them dry for a few days. Give fuži a gentle toss now and again. Store in a paper bag or in a jar.

Chicken Stew with Simple Dumplings (Obara) Istrian Style Recipe

This dish must be one of the most comforting foods ever. It is rustic, homely, authentic, it showcases true simplicity at its best, and best of all it is incredibly easy to make.

Onions, celery, carrots, and pieces or chunks of chicken are slowly cooked until the vegetables are completely soft and the chicken slightly browned. Then the water, fresh marjoram, and the seasoning are added, and the stew is then gently boiled for less than an hour. The simple dumplings are then cooked in the hot stew giving it a slightly thicker and velvety consistency.

This dish is part of the traditional Slovenian cuisine (known as Piščančja or Kokošja obara or simply known as Obara) and is very popular up and down the country, with a different regional variations along the way. An array of vegetables (peas, celeriac, cauliflower, leeks etc.) and herbs (thyme, bay leaf, parsley) can be added to the stew. It is cooked in households on a regular basis and can sometimes be found in rustic style restaurants, and then it is eaten as independent meal (main dish).

My paternal grandmother (nona Nada) and my maternal grandfather (deda Anton) made the very best, and they always took a great care and pride to cook one of the humblest peasant dishes.

They both told me that this stew was made from the old chickens that no longer laid the eggs – so everything was used, and nothing was wasted. The meat was quite hard, and tuff and it needed hours of cooking in order to become more tender, but it did provide a very flavoursome and tasty stew. It was then served with simple flour dumplings floating elegantly on top, and sometimes an egg would be added to the basic flour batter for extra richness (one of the variations on the dumplings recipe calls for semolina flour).

This stew is one of the top favourite dishes in the family, and here I am sharing the recipe of my grandparents from Slovenian Istra.

The recipe for the dumplings used for this stew are inspired and originated from Austrian style gnocchi called Nockerel (the batter is made with eggs and flour, then they are cooked in hot boiling water and eaten as a main dish with different sauces, beef goulash being the most common one).

This gastronomic influence will come as no surprise as Slovenia is geographically very close to Austria and was once also ruled by the Austro- Hungarian Empire.

Recipe

Ingredients for the stew

Serves 4-6

• 1 big onion (about 220g), peeled and finely chopped

• 1 carrot (about 100g), peeled and finely chopped or finely grated

• 1 celery stick (about 40g), finely chopped

• 2 Tbsp olive oil

• 700g roughly of chicken meat like tights, drumsticks, wings, breast

  (chicken pieces that you choose can be on the bone or without, with the skin or skinless, bear in mind that the skin will give the stew more flavour but can also make it too oily and greasy and potentially unpleasant to eat).

  For this recipe I used ½ of the whole chicken and cut it in smaller random sized chunks and removed most of the skin.

• 1 generous Tbsp fresh marjoram, very finely chopped (you can also use dry marjoram)

• 1 Tbsp white flour

• 2 litres of water

• sea salt

• black pepper

  Ingredients for the dumplings

• 200g white plain flour

• 150ml roughly water

• sea salt

Method

Place the olive oil in a stewing pan and add finely chopped onions, celery, finely grated carrots, and the chicken meat.

Season with sea salt and black pepper and cook altogether, very slowly on gentle heat, stirring quite frequently until the vegetables cook down completely and become soft and the chicken is lightly brown and caramelized on the outside. This could take up to 45 minutes, but it is crucial for the success of the dish.

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Sprinkle with flour and stir, then add the water, chopped marjoram, and bring to boil.

Turn the heat down, partially cover with the lid, and cook gently for about 45 minutes.

While the stew is cooking prepare the batter for the dumplings.

Put the flour in a bowl and add a pinch of sea salt.

Gradually start pouring the water and mix with the fork until you get the consistency of a quite thick pancake batter. Beat the batter until it gets quite stiff and lump free. Set aside and leave to rest until the chicken stew is cooked.

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Taste the stew and adjust the seasoning with sea salt and black pepper.

Remove the chicken pieces form the stew. Remove the skin and the bones.

To make the dumplings dip the spoon into the gentle boiling chicken stew (this should prevent the batter sticking to the spoon).

Simply scoop up with a side of a teaspoon a bit of batter and gently drop it in the stew (dipping the teaspoon into the hot stew will help the batter just slide off the spoon, if it does not, help yourself with another spoon).

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Repeat the process and drop the dumplings into the hot stew one by one until you finish all the batter.

Cook the dumplings for about 5 minutes in gently boiling stew (do not boil the stew aggressively).

Put back in the stew the pieces of chicken (free of bones and skin) and serve hot immediately.

Just a thought

This stew, like most stew and soups, is best made in advance.

You can keep cooked chicken stew in the fridge in an airtight container for about two days.

This dish freezes very well.

Dumplings can be made using buckwheat flour instead of white plain flour and the amount of water needs to be adjusted accordingly (different types of flour absorb different quantities of liquid).

Dumplings can also be made using the eggs. Crack one egg into a bowl and whisk gently. Add a pinch of sea salt, plain white flour and water as needed to obtain a fairly thick batter.

You can also use two eggs and white flour without the addition of water.

Wine suggestion

Alto Adige Pinot Grigio DOC "Porer" 2021 - Alois Lageder

Pljukanci-Traditional Istrian handmade rolled Pasta Recipe

Pljukanci is a handmade, traditional Istrian variety of pasta, most commonly found along the northern coastline of Slovenia and Croatia. This is the quickest and the easiest way to make your own pasta, no pasta machine or any knowledge of pasta making is required. This seriously delicious type of pasta with incredibly pleasant chewy texture is hand made by simply rolling a small piece of dough between the palms of your hands or on a clean working surface or a table. 

Making Pljukanci with my nephew Dan (in grey T-shirt), my son Jakob, and my sister in law Tatjana - Summer 2022 in my nona’s garden in Koper, Slovenia

In the past, Pljukanci were created during the time of extreme poverty with significant shortage of food, but there was one thing in abundance, the ingenuity of local people to create mouthwatering dishes from the most humble, basic and simple ingredients. Pljukanci are a perfect example of this, this type of pasta is made of nothing else but flour, sea salt and water, sometimes eggs and bit of extra virgin oil would be added. Pljukanci were a everyday meal to fill up the stomach, nowadays, they represent a celebratory dish, a dish you pick up from the menu when you go out with family and friends to mark a special occasion. 

Pljukanci would commonly be served with different types of sauces made with local, seasonal ingredients like, wild asparagus and Istrian Prsut (Istrian dry cured ham), wild mushrooms, goulash sauce cooked with different kinds of meats, black or white truffles, or simply with top quality extra virgin olive oil and freshly grated hard cheese.  

Incredibly satisfying to make, if have never made pasta before, start with this one, children can make this with no problem, it is a bit like playing with Play-Dough. 

This pasta dish made with pljukanci will just instantly make you feel better, there is something so cosy and warm about them, pair them with any sauce you like, you cannot go wrong, well, maybe not making enough of them...

Recipe

Ingredients 

• 500g all purpose white flour or 00 flour 

• 2 smallish eggs or 1 bigger egg (weight the cracked eggs and add enough water to obtain the total amount of 250ml of liquid). For example, I used 2 small eggs weighing 104g so I added 146ml of lukewarm water.

• lukewarm water, as needed (this will depend on the size and the weight of the eggs you are using)

Method 

Place the flour in a mixing bowl or directly on a working surface or a wooden pasta board (if you have one). Make a well in the centre of the flour and add salt and beaten eggs.

Stir with the fork or a wooden spoon, then start adding water, bit by bit and incorporate well all the ingredients .

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Mix until well combined. 

Transfer the dough onto a clean surface or wooden pasta board.

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Work the dough gently (no proper kneading required) until it becomes compact, elastic, and not sticky.  

Cover the dough in cling film, and allow the dough to rest for about 30 min. 

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Pinch small pieces from the dough (roughly the size of  a hazelnut) and roll each piece between your palms or on a clean working surface until you get long thin compact pasta shapes, thinner at the ends and thicker in the middle.  

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Repeat the process until you finish all the dough.

Pljukanci to dry a bit in about 30 min. 

To cook the pljukanci, bring large pot of salted water to boil, and cook pljukanci for about 10 minutes or until “al dente”.  

Drain or take pljukanci out using a skimmer and transfer in the pan with the boiling sauce. Make sure you always keep a bit of cooking liquid and add a bit to it in a frying pan together with the pasta and the sauce, and you will surprised what lovely velvety consistency this creates. 

Strain, and combine with your favourite sauce and serve hot immediately. 

Just a thought

You can make Pljukanci without the eggs, just add 250ml of lukewarm water to the flour.

Bleki – Fresh Istrian pasta Recipe

Bleki are one of the typical Istrian square shaped fresh pasta, similar to Italian Maltagliati. They are normally home made and hand rolled with a wooden rolling pin, but these days the pasta machine is often used instead.

The squares are traditionally cut from lasagna pasta sheets by hand with a sharp knife or with a fluted pastry wheel for a sightly more “modern”and decorative touch.

Due to its shape and thickness (bleki are slightly thicker compared to other types of pasta made from regular thin pasta lasagna sheets). This type of pasta is very pleasant to eat because when bleki are cooked they almost have a texture of a dumpling.

Bleki, this simple pasta, truly reflects the peasant life in Istria and represents real home rustic cooking. Bleki are very easy to make and if you have never made fresh pasta yourself at home and have been always temped, but find the task quite daunting, this is a perfect recipe to start with.

Traditional Istrian pasta holds a special place in Istrian gastronomy among other original dishes, and

changed its form and name through the journey from Italy to Istria.

There are two variations of bleki, the first made with white flour, pinch of sea salt and water. Bleki made like this are usually added to soups, like a typical Pasta e fasoi (Pasta and beans soup), to give soups thickness and velvety texture, as fresh pasta during cooking process releases the starch.

The second variation is often made with eggs, if a local family has a few chickens, so if you prefer egg-based pasta, and don’t raise your own chickens, you can buy organic eggs, or use ordinary eggs to make the pasta. However, traditionally, this egg based Bleki would only be made for special occasions like weddings, major holidays, special Sunday lunch, and other special events, as it was traditionally paired, and still is, with chicken or rabbit goulash, meat dishes equally reserved for celebratory occasions.

My paternal nona shared with me that bleki in her village and the surrounding area would be called blečiċi which is a diminutive and affectionate version of the word for bleks, which means krpica in standard Slovenian, indicating a small piece of cloth.

This type of pasta really represents a true gastronomic osmosis between Istria and Friuli, the most north-eastern region of Italy, where bleki are called blecs or referred to as biechi and are often made with a mixture of white flour and buckwheat flour.

This much loved pasta could be sometimes found on the menus in local family run restaurants on both sides of the border, but unfortunately not as frequently as a special dish of the day as I would have liked.

However, keep in mind that Bleki is a type of pasta that is made and consumed on the same day, and is not suitable for drying.

Ingredients

Serves 4-6

• 400 g 00 pasta flour

• 4 large free range or organic eggs

• pinch of sea salt

Method

Place the flour directly on a working surface, wooden board or mixing bowl and make a well in the centre.

Crack the eggs directly into a well and add a pinch of salt.

Using a fork, mix the eggs with the flour, incorporating a little at a time, until everything is combined. At this stage you will end up with pieces of dough. Just keep working it until it comes together. You will get at first a rough and floury dough.

Start kneading the dough, which at first may feel a little dry, and at this stage you might think the recipe has go wrong. It could take around 10 min of kneading for the gluten to develop in the flour and to get a smooth lump of dough.

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Wrap dough tightly with cling film or a clean cotton kitchen cloth and let it rest at the room temperature for about 30 minutes.

Unwrap the dough and cut it in half. Cover the half of the dough that you are not working with, with cling film to prevent it from drying and cracking.

With your hands flatten the other half of the dough to a thickness of about 0.5cm and lightly dust with flour as need it to prevent sticking.

Put the flattened half of the dough through pasta machine on the widest setting.

Fold the dough in half, keep rollers on the widest setting, and reroll the dough.

Flour as needed to prevent sticking, and keep rolling pasta dough through pasta machine reducing the width of rollers one setting at a time.

Continue rolling until pasta dough has been rolled through second thinnest setting.

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Repeat the same process with the other half of pasta dough.

At this stage you should end up with a few pasta (lasagna) sheets. Place them on a lightly floured surface.

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With a sharp knife (traditionally done) or fluted pastry cutter, cut pasta sheets into squares.

Place bleki on a lightly floured wooden board or baking tray making sure the pasta squares are dusted between the layers.

Pasta is ready to be cooked immediately, alternatively cover bleki well with cling and chill until ready to use, more or less up to four hours.

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Just a thought

Normally, about 80-100g of pasta per person, with your choice of sauce will make a quite substantial plate of meal. If using pasta as a starter reduce the amount of pasta to 50-60g.