Corzetti are a kind of fresh pasta

Pasta

Pasta is a staple food of traditional Italian cuisine, now of worldwide renown. It takes the form of unleavened dough, made in Italy, mostly of durum wheat , water and sometimes eggs. Pasta comes in a variety of different shapes that serve for both decoration and to act as a carrier for the...

 typical of the Ligurian cuisine of north-west Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, and traditional also in the area of Novi Ligure

Novi Ligure

Novi Ligure is a town and comune north of Genoa, in the Piedmont region of the province of Alessandria of northwest Italy.The town produces food, iron, steel, and textiles. It is an important junction for both road and railroad....

 just across the border with Piedmont

Piedmont

Piedmont is one of the 20 regions of Italy. It has an area of 25,402 square kilometres and a population of about 4.4 million. The capital of Piedmont is Turin. The main local language is Piedmontese. Occitan is also spoken by a minority in the Occitan Valleys situated in the Provinces of...

 in the Province of Alessandria

Province of Alessandria

The Province of Alessandria is an Italian province, with a population of some 430,000, which forms the southeastern part of the region of Piedmont. The provincial capital is the city of Alessandria....

. They seem as an another Ligurian pasta called Croxetti

Croxetti

right|thumb|Italian commercially-produced croxettiCroxetti is a unique type of pasta consisting of flat medallion or coin-shaped pasta disks stamped by hand or machine with intricate patterns.-Origin and history:...

.

There are two different kinds of corzetti. Those from the Val Polcevera, one of the principal valleys of the area of Genoa

Genoa

Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....

 are made in "figure of eight" shape. Elsewhere curzetti stampae (“pressed” or “stamped” corzetti) are found. These are small, thin rounds of pasta which are given an embossed decoration using a special wooden hand-tool. The embossing is indeed more than decoration as it helps the pasta to hold its sauce better. In the historic centre of Genoa there are still traditional pasta shops where the corzetti are hand-made and where they make these tools to make them with.

Besides the artisanal production, corzetti are also made on an industrial basis using ravioli machines made by such companies as Arienti & Cattaneo, Ima, Ostoni

Ostoni

Ostoni is a manufacturer of plants, machines, dies, accessories and spare parts used in pasta production operations. The company produces, refurbishes and sells new and second-hand equipment world wide and is known especially for its machines for filled products...

 and Zamboni.

Preparation

A pasta dough is made using flour, water and salt and rolled out into a sheet. The pasta is cut into rounds which are stamped to form the embossed relief, and left to dry for a while. After boiling in salted water they are typically dressed with a walnut

Walnut

Juglans is a plant genus of the family Juglandaceae, the seeds of which are known as walnuts. They are deciduous trees, 10–40 meters tall , with pinnate leaves 200–900 millimetres long , with 5–25 leaflets; the shoots have chambered pith, a character shared with the wingnuts , but not the hickories...

 or mushroom sauce (the latter called Tocco de funzi, in Genoese) or alternatively with pesto

Pesto

Pesto is a sauce originating in Genoa in the Liguria region of northern Italy , and traditionally consists of crushed garlic, basil and pine nuts blended with olive oil and Parmigiano Reggiano and Fiore Sardo...

. Around Novi a sauce of mushrooms and sausages is common.