Moroni Pasta

I recently stumbled across an old recipe for home made pasta that appealed to my sensibilities. It's called Moroni Pasta. You have to make it from scratch, because commercial sources are scarce to nonexistent. There are three variations on Moroni Pasta. The first is the simplest, boiling pasta in coffee. The next uses brewed coffee, and the third is made with instant coffee.


Bitter Moroni Pasta

This is the only version I've tried. I boiled three cheese tortellini in coffee, and served it with an Alfredo sauce. Unfortunately, boiling that much coffee results in a bitter and astringent meal. The Alfredo sauce could have been a bit sweeter to balance the bitterness of the coffee boiled tortellini.

1. Purchase commercial pasta.
2. Read the preparation directions and replace the recommended water with strong coffee, preferably made in a French Press.
3. Cook the pasta according to the manufacture's directions.

The leftover coffee will be bitter and starchy. I'd be hard pressed to find a good use for it, but if you cooked the pasta without added oil, you could use it to make a coffee beer. The starch will settle out when the yeast flocculates and the bitterness can be balanced by reducing the bittering hops.

Brewed Moroni Pasta

A major advantage of adding the coffee to the pasta is the end result won't be as bitter as pasta cooked in coffee. The result is far more versatile and can pair with any number of sauces.

1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 egg
2 tablespoons brewed Espresso or Turkish coffee

1. Sift the salt and flour into a medium sized bowl.
2. In a second bowl, beat the egg and coffee
3. Make a well in the flour/salt mixture and add the egg/coffee mixture.
4. Mix together to form a stiff, smooth dough.
5. Knead the dough for 5 minutes on a lightly floured surface. Add flour until the dough is no longer sticky.
6. Use a pasta machine to roll the dough to the desired thickness.
7. Cut to desired width.

The last two steps can be done by hand, but a pasta machine makes it easier.

Quick Moroni Pasta

It's critical that the instant espresso be completely dissolved in the egg before you combine it with the flour, or the resulting pasta will have bits of incompletely dissolved espresso powder. This will cause the pasta to break apart when cooked.

1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 egg
1 tablespoon instant espresso.
2 tablespoons of water.

1. Sift the salt and flour into a medium sized bowl.
2. In a second bowl, beat the egg and instant espresso.
3. Make a well in the flour/salt mixture and add the egg/coffee mixture.
4. Mix together to form a stiff, smooth dough. Add water as necessary.
5. Knead the dough for 5 minutes on a lightly floured surface. Add flour until the dough is no longer sticky.
6. Use a pasta machine to roll the dough to the desired thickness.
7. Cut to desired width.