Lorighittas with Jason Stoneburner

Let's play a game. Close your eyes and imagine the perfect plate of pasta. Homemade noodles rolled with loving hands, boiled to perfection in heavily salted water, and marked by all the right nooks and crannies for holding a flavorful sauce. Perhaps it's a thick tomato ragù or a medley of seafood with garlic and white wine; maybe it's a pesto made from the delightfully salty-sweet duo of marjoram and olives. Imagine that pasta still warm from the stove, topped with a mound of grated cheese and fragrant as all get-out. Are you hungry yet? 

Here's the good news: this pasta actually exists. The pasta of your dreams, the one you've been drooling over in your sleep is lorighittas. Named after the Sardinian word for the iron rings used to hitch horses, these braided beauties have been part of the island's culture for centuries. Traditionally produced in Morgongiori, lorighittas are thought to be tricky to make. Pasta peddlers in the tiny town will train for years to make lorighittas fit for the Sagra delle Lorighittas, a celebration that takes place during the first week of every August.

However, you don't have to travel to Sardinia every summer to get a taste of lorighittas. These delicate twists on homemade Italian cuisine are well worth the hard work; you can roll them at home with just a handful of ingredients and a little bit of patience. Jason Stoneburner, Seattle pasta expert extraordinaire, dough-rolling aficionado, and chef/owner of one of our favorite Seattle restaurants, Stoneburner, shows us how easy it can be to make the perfect pasta in your own kitchen.