[Back Post] Food Diary - A Pasta Pilgrimage at Ben Fatto

Yesterday night was a heavenly celebration of pasta, handmade by sfoglino Lee Yum Hwa at Ben Fatto 95. It was certainly also a journey through Italy's culinary traditions, culture and history all told (eaten!) through pasta. I am very grateful to our friends DT and AL for inviting Hubby and me to share the pasta journey with together with them.

We were a party of 10, a mix of people who were strangers, acquaintances and former colleagues, all mutually connected to DT and AL, as well as a shared love for good food. Well, I wouldn't call myself a foodie, but I do enjoy a good meal, especially one deliciously prepared. And last night's dinner at Ben Fatto was hands down one of the best and most memorable meals I've had the privilege of enjoying. As for the pasta itself, I have no words to describe just how good they were. One has to experience it to understand.

Yum Hwa cutting the rolled dough to make ribbons of tagliatelle, a pasta named from the Italian word "tagliare", that is, "to cut".

The setting was simple. I'd say reminiscent of a casual meal among family and friends. A table set for 10 in the backyard of his parents' home, amid greenery. No starched white table cloths or fancy dinner ware and silver ware. Just a papered table, simple cotton napkins, everyday glassware and cutlery. He did use pretty porcelain plates — Narumi and Noriyuki, so some of the best Japanese-made dinner ware. Hanging over the table were lovely hanging porcelain lamps painted with pastas and "Ben Fatto", which is Italian for "well made".

If not for the tropical plants and the musang that sauntered past after dark, I would have almost believed we were at an Italian nonna's home. The backyard is now fully enclosed in glass and is air-conditioned. Thank the heavens, as mosquito season in this unseasonal heat has been torture for me. I've been unable to be anywhere without getting bitten (eaten alive) and sometimes have mild allergic reactions to their bites.

Ben Fatto is a private home dining experience started by Yum Hwa who fell in love with pasta while on a trip to Italy in 2016. He became so passionate that he taught himself how to make pasta, and went to Italy with his wife for their honeymoon. They travelled (ate!) through Lombardy, Tuscany, Emilia Romagna, Sicily and Sardinia. According to Yum Hwa, throughout the trip, he ate 5 pasta meals a day just so he could cram in as much experience as he could. He then went on a quest in Italy to learn the history and traditional craft of making certain types of pasta, many of which we were served during this meal.

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Table settings (left); Polpo in umido (right)

Dinner was a degustation menu of 7 types of pasta. The main show was, naturally, the pasta. But Yum Hwa included a trio of simple starters to kick things off. He mentioned that when he first started Ben Fatto, he would go straight into pasta, but over time started introducing some simple Italian dishes to whet the appetite and start things off. The trio of starters were simple but thoughtfully sourced and prepared.

So dinner started off with a simple variety of classic Italian cold cuts, olives, and polpo in umido. The warm polpo in umido (stewed octopus) was finished with cherry tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil and fresh basil. The flavours were just right, the texture of the octopus succulent, perfect with the burst of juicy, umami tart cherry tomatoes.

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Mortadella Bologna with pistachios (left); Prosciutto, mostarda di frutta, Castelvetrano olives (right)

The mortadella Bologna with pistachios, which Yum Hwa sourced from Emilia-Romagna, was simple: porky flavours studded with lardons, with textural contrast from the pistachios. The other cold cut: prosciutto accompanied by mostarda di frutta (Italian mustard candied fruits) and green Castelvetrano olives.

I love olives of every kind, but I think Castelvetrano olives would be my favourite. These were delightful. Beautifully green, delicately savoury and buttery. Delicious. I could just eat them as the sole starter and be happy. I had the fig mostarda, which was sticky and moist, though a tad too sweet for my preference. The sticky, mustard-tinted sweet mostarda went quite well with the salty, rich proscuitto. Personally I would've liked fresh, ripe figs to go with the prosciutto but I've no complaints, really.

Foglie d'ulivo grano arso, broccoletti e acciughe

Then after a brief wait, the first pasta arrived: the foglie d'ulivo al grano arso, or olive leaf pasta with burnt wheat. This first pasta is from Puglia (Apulia), and is traditional in the Daunian Mountains of Puglia, an area known as the green soul of Puglia. Foglie d'ulivo is shaped like olive leaves. Hence its name.

In reference to the peasant traditions and the cuisine of the area, Yum Hwa made this pasta with grano arso (literally "burnt grain"), i.e. burnt wheat, a food ingredient also originating from Puglia. Created out of poverty and necessity in the past, peasant farmers would first burn the remaining stubble after harvest, and then collect the fallen wheat, which they then cooked or milled into flour.

The foglie d'ulivo was accompanied with a pesto of broccolini and anchovies, finished with pangrattato made from 4-day-old sourdough bread which Yum Hwa grated and fried in butter. Absolutely delicious. The green of the pasta was further highlighted by the pesto's vibrancy. The texture of this pasta is not monotonous, with slightly more bite on its ends and sides as contrasted with the centre. While the pasta had bite (perfectly QQ), the little silvers of sliced broccolini stems and the pangrattato added textural crunch. We joked a little about how the bread crumbs looked and almost tasted like bacon bits. Fried bacon bits or pancetta would probably be a nice addition too, but the fried bread crumbs were perfect and the dish actually didn't need anything else. Conceptually, the pangrattato also matched Yum Hwa's theme of cucina povera, the "kitchen of the poor", namely peasant food that focuses on frugality and resourcefully stretching every ingredient.

Trofie di Recco

The second pasta was trofie di Recco. Trofie is a thin, twisted pasta from Liguria in northwestern Italy, originating in the towns of Sori, Recco and Camogli in eastern Liguria. "Trofie" in the Ligurian dialect means "gnocchi" but is actually an eggless pasta made with only soft wheat flour (durum wheat) and water. The dough is formed by a laborious hand technique called strofinare or strufuggiâ (literally "to rub"), in which each trofie spiral is formed by rubbing or rolling a pinch of pasta dough on a pastry board using the palm, then rolling the dough diagonally across the board with the edge of the palm, forming its characteristic spiral. Trofie was originally exclusively handmade at home, but mass production began around 50 years ago when a group of merchants in the area started selling them to Genoa. Its commercial success gave rise to the mass production, of which the dried form contributed to its global spread. Yum Hwa's trofie however were all handmade, in his effort to preserve and practise the traditional methods.

Trofie is typically served with pesto alla genovese in Ligurian cuisine. But not wanting to repeat a green pesto after the foglie d'ulivo, Yum Hwa served his trofie with portobello and oyster mushrooms, garlic and Parmigiana Reggiano. And if I'm not wrong, small bits of chopped walnuts? Tocco de funzi, a Genoa-style condiment of mushrooms.

Trofie di Recco, tocco de funzi

The flavours were light and earthy, with freshness from herbs. Yum Hwa likened it to being reminiscent of a wild forest floor, and the dish did conjure the sense of foraging for mushrooms in the forest on a dewy morning. The little spirals of trofie were chewy QQ little morsels that were a textural delight all on their own, with the mushrooms providing great contrast. Yum Hwa used cultivated mushrooms, so I couldn't help wondering what this dish would be like with wild mushrooms like porcini, chanterelles or morels.

What struck me most when the trofie dish came out was how there was just enough sauce to just coat the pasta but nothing more. That brought to mind what Yum Hwa said at the beginning of dinner, which was that he wanted the pasta to take centre stage, and not be overwhelmed by the sauce. So yes, it was certainly pasta first, sauce only if needed. He did share about a period when he was experimenting, and had just tossed all his pasta in olive oil, some garlic and seasoning. He told us that during that period, everybody hated it and so he changed his approach. Again, no complaints as we're beneficiaries of this delicious revision. But I admit I'm also curious what the flavours and textures of the pasta would be like under that former approach.

The third pasta was tagliatelle al mattarello. Probably as well known as spaghetti, tagliatelle needs no or little explanation. Tagliatelle is an egg pasta that originates from Bologna in Emilia-Romagna, the birthplace of tagliatelle bolognese.

Yum Hwa rolling out the tagliatelle pasta dough with his mattarello

Tagliatelle can be traced back to the Renaissance, the first written record being a 1549 treaty by a steward of the princely noble House of Este in Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy. Tagliatelle is said to have been created by Zafirano, the chef to the ruler of Bologna Giovanni II Bentivoglio, for the 1487 wedding of Bentivoglio's son Annibale II and Lucrezia d'Este (a member of House Este). A popular theory is that Zafirano was inspired by the famous long golden locks of Lucrezia Borgia (wife of Alfonso I d'Este from 1502). If blond locks were the inspiration, I'm more inclined to believe that it may have been the bride's or House of Este in general, as blond hair was a notable characteristic of the House.

Yum Hwa's tagliatelle has a ratio of 5 eggs to 100g of flour, and is made entirely by hand and rolled out using a rolling pin (a mattarello), hence tagliatelle al mattarello which literally means "rolling pin tagliatelle". With his handmade tagliatelle, Yum Hwa was paying homage to the culinary traditions, culture and history of Bologna.

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The cut-away pieces from the tagliatelle dough (left); the finished tagliatelle al mattarello (right)

The method of cutting the tagliatelle, as well as the knife, very much resembles teuchi soba (handmade soba), which Yum Hwa himself mentions in passing. It was quite mesmerising to just watch him scatter semolina flour over the table, repeatedly fold and roll the tagliatelle dough with his mattarello, then cut them into tagliatelle strips with the knife. As is generally known, tagliatelle is so-named from the Italian word "tagliare", meaning "to cut".

With its length and thickness (or rather, thinness), the tagliatelle is considered a test of the skills of a sfoglina (here, sfoglino). In his tagliatelle, Yum Hwa said he strives to create a balance between the silkiness one gets from fine thinness, but without losing the bite (QQ). He also eschews machine-rolled tagliatelle, as traditionally, tagliatelle should have a rough and porous texture in order to hold the sauce. The right amount of rough texture is also said to be a mark of the maker's skill.

Tagliatelle al mattarello, sugo Romagnolo

The tagliatelle was served sugo Romagnolo, a Romagna style beef ragù, with cherry tomatoes, prosciutto crudo and rucola (argula). The pasta texture was amazing, embracing the ragù sauce in just the right amount, and the doneness on-point, the ragù had a richness that was brightened with the umami tartness of the cherry tomatoes and hints of mild peppery bitterness of the argula.

The fourth pasta was the sa frègula sarda. Originating from Sardinia, it is a rare shaped pasta that resembles couscous or acini di pepe. It is said that frègula can be traced to ancient times, as a way to preserve grains and is purportedly influenced by the Arabs who ruled Sicily during the 9th to 11th centuries.

Sa fregula Sarda

Frègula is derived from the Latin word "fricare", meaning "to rub", the Italian word "sfregolare" meaning to crumble or reduce to crumbs, or in the Sardinian language, to rub between the hands. This references the method frègula is made — finely milled granules of semolina flour (semolo di grano duro) are "grown" into tiny balls of pasta by hand by repeated cycles of moistening flour granules with a little water, followed by flour, slowly building each granule to the desired size. (This reminds me of the method of making Chinese yuan xiao.) In keeping with traditional methods, Yum Hwa made this pasta in a scivedda, a terracotta bowl widely used in Sardinia to prepare bread, pasta and traditional pastry.

Frègula is often cooked in a lamb or mutton broth, Sardinia being a sheep-centric region. But in Yum Hwa's menu, he chose to serve it bottarga di muggine, that is, in a clam broth consommé, finished with bottarga and a touch of garum. This was a very simple dish that belies its painstaking handmade method. That said, the clam consommé was a great way to showcase the frègula and its textures. The little pearls were also completely permeated with the flavours of the broth, with just a touch of salty richness from the garum, a kind of funkiness, in a good way. Not the first time I've heard of garum, but my first taste.

Sa fregula Sarda, bottarga di muggine

A fermented fish sauce that was widely used during ancient Roman times, garum is often been described as similar to Southeast Asian fish sauces, Thai nam pla and Vietnamese nước chấm. I recall learning about it in a documentary on an ancient Roman city (Pompeii, I think) but didn't think we'd be having it. It's not exactly a condiment one can just pop in and get from the supermarket or any specialty store. Though I assume the garum used was a contemporary derivation of the traditional fermented fish sauce as opposed to modern-day innovative garum.

I think some people may be tired of pasta by the time we got to the fifth one, but all 10 of us were simply too immersed in Yum Hwa's stories and knowledge, as well as each pasta's history, beautiful shapes, flavours and textures that we were still excitedly anticipating the next dish. I think if Yum Hwa, our stomachs and time permitted, all of us would quite happily devour 10 pasta types.

The fifth pasta was one that I was most looking forward to: the andarinos de Usini. A peasant tradition with its roots in Usini in the Sassari province of northern Sardinia, this twisted pasta is hand-made with local semolina of durum wheat or some variety heritage grain in Usini. Its origins are unclear, though it has been speculated to have Spanish/Catalan roots. The first documented record of this pasta is a 17th century report by Martin Carrillo, a visitor from the court of Philip III of Spain and Portugal, in which Carrillo wrote of a lunch hosted by Antiogo Marcello of Mamoiada that included "los andarines".

The final step involves pressing the pasta dough with the thumb over a ridged surface, usually made of glass or tile in the present-day. That last step is what forms the curls and ridged design of each andarinu. According to Yum Hwa, no known machinery is able to reproduce this format at this time. At this point, he invited us to try our hand at shaping the andarinu pasta.

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Yum Hwa's beautifully shaped andarinu (left); AL's attempts at shaping andarinu (right)

Three of us, including AL and myself, were interested to try. Shaping the andarinu... WAS. SUPER. HARD. Yum Hwa made it look easy but he did say it's difficult for first-timers. He told us that it was a major challenge for him as well, when he first started. Now he's been making them almost daily for the past 3+ years... so he's literally made thousands of andarinu, maybe even more. While the 3rd person and I were pretty bad at it, AL's first attempt turned out quite nicely! Yum Hwa left to prepare the dish and left us to freely try more. Which we did. I couldn't turn out a single nicely curled one, but it was a lot of fun nonetheless.

Andarinos de Usini, su ghisadu, Fiore Sardo D.O.P.

In Usini, andarinos have been prepared for festive occasions like weddings and the Feast of Saint Mary since antiquity. The classic accompaniment for andarinos is su ghisadu, a Logudorese dish traditionally of mutton or pork cooked over low heat with tomato, bay leaf, garlic. The historical region of Logudoro saw significant Catalan/Spanish influences and the word "ghisadu" purportedly Spanish (or Catalan?) means "cooked in a stew".

Yum Hwa kept to Sardinian tradition, serving them with su ghisadu and Fiore Sardo D.O.P. — in this version, a braised oxtail with grated Fiore Sardo, a type of Pecorino sardo with DOP status, made using only milk from Sarda sheep in Sardinia. The richness of the oxtail and red wine, with a hint of the aromatic and slight bitterness from the pecorino was delicious. Oh, and the texture of the andarinos, soft at the edges but with perfect bite in the centre; similar to the trofie but with the stew caught in curls and ridges.... Before this dish, my favourite had been the tagliatelle (which had displaced the mushroom trofie, which in turn had displaced the broccolini foglie), but I was now rather torn between the andarinos and the tagliatelle.

After all the excitement from the andarinos, the sixth pasta seemed less exotic and exciting: the cappellacci di zucca, which means little pumpkin hats. BUT! the cappellacci pasta dish became hands down my No. 1 favourite in the entire meal at Ben Fatto.

Cappellaci is a traditional filled pasta that originated from Ferrara in Emilia-Romagna, and was documented as having been created during the Renaissance times for the princely House of Este, the ruling house of Ferrara. Hence its other names cappellacci ferraresi, in reference to their place of origin, and cappellacci estensi, in reference to the House of Este. It is a symbol of the cuisine of Ferrara, and its name purportedly derived from "cappellaccio" or "caplaz" in the Ferrara dialect due to its resemblance in shape to the straw hats that peasants used; or it was possibly derived from cappelletti pasta which resemble the cornette, a historical nun's headgear popular in the 15th to 17th centuries.

Cappellacci di zucca

Cappellacci are typically filled with local yellow winter squash called zucca violina (butternut squash to the rest of us), Parmigiano Reggiano and nutmeg. As Yum Hwa explained, its sweet, savoury and sour flavours are reminiscent of those enjoyed in the princely House of Gonzaga in the neighbouring Mantua in Lombardy. Marriages between members of the Houses of Este and Gonzaga, and their geographical proximity, led to mutual influences in both culture and cuisine. In the case of cappellacci, its first written recipe dates to 1584 by Giovanni Battista Rossetti, chef of the court of Alfonso II d'Este. But apparently there was an earlier similar pasta, the pumpkin tortellini (tortelli di zucca), was written in 1549 by Cristoforo Messisbugo, a chef at the House of Este who also often worked at the Gonzaga court for the Isabella d'Este, the wife of Francesco II Gonzaga. Whichever the case, it just highlights how much mutual influence both the Este and Gonzaga courts shared.

The filling for cappellacci di zucca has remained similar since the Renaissance, except for the heavy use of spices which purportedly included nutmeg, black pepper, cinnamon and ginger. Unsurprising, as using spices in their dishes (in particular pepper and nutmeg) was a way for European aristocracy to display their status and wealth.

Cappellacci di zucca, burro e salvia

Each of Yum Hwa's neatly shaped, handmade cappellaccio was filled with a simple mix of velvety butternut squash with a touch of ginger and nutmeg. Likewise, Yum Hwa also dressed the cappellacci di zucca with its classic sauce, burro e salvia (butter and sage), and finished with a drizzle of aged balsamic vinegar and Parmigiano Reggiano.

The cappellacci di zucca was just perfectly executed, wonderfully balanced and delicious. The perfect balance of sweet, savoury and sour, rich yet light, pillowy yet dense. The balsamic vinegar was the perfect touch to lift the dish. I'd go so far as to say that the cappellacci di zucca was my favourite of all the pasta dishes I've eaten in life thus far; okay, maybe outside of Italy. And it wasn't just me, most of the others felt the same as well. Three others even went so far as to say it was even better than a lot of pasta they had in Italy (thus far). So good that I had one of Yum Hwa's "insurance" pieces; he made 3 or 4, all of which were wiped out in seconds.

And so at last, we got to the seventh. The last but not the least. The pièce de résistance of Yum Hwa's pasta repetoire, the highly anticipated su filindeu, the so-named threads of God or God's yarn. In fact, Ben Fatto is one of the very few places outside Sardinia where one can eat this pasta.

Also known as fili di dio in standard Italian, this ritual pasta originates from the Barbagia region, exclusively from Nuoro in Sardinia. This pasta was considered a sacred dish for over 200 years, served only to pilgrims who completed an over 30km pilgrimage from Nuoro to the village of Lula for the biannual Feast of San Francesco (Saint Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of the poor, animals, ecology and nature).

Su filindeu is difficult and time-consuming pasta. It is made with durum wheat semolina and water. The pasta dough is kneaded for a long time until soft and elastic. When the dough is ready to be shaped is a matter of hand feel. The dough is divided into small portions, then folded and hand stretched 8 times into thin threads, around 256 strands. The pasta threads are then crisscrossed over each other over a circular wooden tray called fundu to create 3 thin overlapping layers that form equilateral triangles, and then left to dry in the sun. The resulting thin pasta sheet is then broken into pieces, ready to be made. Holding a piece of the pasta up against the light, I could clearly see those triangles, and they remind me of the Holy Trinity.

The rare, elusive su filindeu, threads of God

For over 300 years, only women from one Sardinian family knew how to make su filindeu, making it the world's rarest and most endangered pasta. The tradition of this pasta was passed down to Paola Abraini. With the lack of successors, Paola decided to teach others outside the family to make su filindeu in order to preserve the culinary tradition and its cultural identity. Until then, su filindeu was little known outside Nuoro, even among Sardinians themselves. So, yeah, no wonder it was in danger of disappearing!

Most information on this pasta mention that only a handful of people make it today. Yum Hwa mentioned that as far as he knows, only around 15 people make this pasta now. Worldwide. Besides Yum Hwa, others include Canadian-Italian chefs Rob Gentile and David Marcelli. Yum Hwa made the journey to Nuoro and learnt how to make the pasta from Paola herself. Jamie Oliver made the trip to Nuoro to learn su filindeu from Paola for his TV series Jamie's Super Food. And he failed to make it. More than once, after 2 hours of trying. On camera. I actually found (and watched!) the video on YouTube.

Su filindeu, brodo di agnello

In Nuoro, su filindeu is traditionally served with a rich mutton broth and a generous portion of fresh pecorino cheese made from local sheep’s milk. However, Yum Hwa instead made brodo di agnello, consommé style lamb broth. He explained that he attempted to come close to its original flavour by using lamb, given the differences in flavour between mutton produced in Sardinia vis-a-vis mutton available here; such differences arising from the different geographical environments, etc. in which the sheep are raised. Yum Hwa added that he further clarified the lamb broth into a consommé to mitigate the gamey flavour. All of us enjoyed the dish. Even DT, who detests mutton and lamb.

The sheet of thin threads had totally soaked up the broth, like an absorbent, soft piece of fabric. Soft and silky. The folding and hand pulling technique, naturally, is also similar to the hand-pulling techniques used to make foods such as Chinese lamian or dragon beard candy. That was something our party of 10 remarked on, the similarities of texture and the techniques, as well as the fineness and texture with Fujian misua. Texture-wise, there was much similarity with misua, though of course, su filindeu uses durum wheat flour, with the strands overlaid to form thin sheets, while misua uses wheat flour and is hand pulled to over 30m long and eaten as long strands.

I guess it was inevitable at this point that we'd briefly bring up the origins of pasta. Namely that the Marco Polo origin story is a myth. Even though, the Chinese were already making noodles some time before 200 BC (Han dynasty), most of us were of the view that it's likely pasta and noodles were created independently of each other in their respective regions. Or at least for pasta, its early form was documented by the ancient Greeks and widely eaten by the ancient Romans, and has been theorised from archaeological evidence to date back to the Etruscans; some scholars have also suggested it has Arabic influences. But that's not really a topic any one of us delved deeply into since most of us were more interested in savouring the delicious pasta we'd just eaten. Most of us had a clear favourite for the night: the cappellacci di zucca. We also had difficulty saying with certainty what was a personal 2nd, wavering between the foglie, the trofie, the tagliatelle and the andarinos.

Cannoli, fresh ricotta, pistachios

And so we came to the end. I actually thought it was over after we emptied our dishes of su filindeu. But no, Yum Hwa wrapped up the wonderful pasta journey with another Italian classic: freshly fried cannoli filled with fresh ricotta and chopped pistachios.

The cannoli were very light and mild, not too sweet either. A simple but perfect finish to the delightful pastas we had. I would've loved a cappuccino or espresso to have it with, but that the cannoli alone was just fine as is. In the meantime, another of our party LH half seriously suggested heading for roti prata supper. He did wistfully add that he wouldn't mind if the menu had 10 pasta types. For the most part, the rest of us were content.

Every accompaniment was simple; just as Yum Hwa stated, everything was done to highlight the pasta. It was truly pasta that took centre stage throughout the entire meal. Not just their shapes, flavours and textures, but also their stories, traditions and techniques. That about sums up the divine pasta journey we took at Ben Fatto, skillfully (and deliciously!) led by sfoglino Lee Yum Hwa, well assisted by his wife and helper, both of whom also deserve thanks.

I am definitely up to another pasta journey at Ben Fatto again.