Recipe: TAGLIOLINI ALLE BARBABIETOLE E ZUCCHINE (Beet Tagliolini With Zucchini)

Note: A favorite with Tuscan wine makers for its well-edited wine list, Ristorante Arnolfo in Colle Val d’Elsa, a hill town 10 miles outside Siena, features sophisticated country cooking by young chef Gaetano Trovato. This pasta dish--bright pink beet-flavored tagliolini with summer zucchini--is one of his best.

3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

3 eggs

Salt

1 medium beet (about 1/4 pound), steamed or boiled, peeled and finely chopped

8 tablespoons butter

2 pounds zucchini, diced

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Mound flour on pasta board. Make well in center and break eggs into it. Add generous dash salt and beets into well. With fork beat egg-beet mixture. Gradually begin incorporating flour from inside of well.

Knead in remaining flour with hands. Continue to knead until smooth and elastic. (If pasta dough seems too wet, knead in little additional flour.) Cover with damp cloth and let dough rest about 15 minutes.

Cut dough into 3 or 4 parts. Using manual pasta machine pass one part through widest setting of rollers. Fold dough in thirds and lightly flour. Repeat with remaining dough.

Pass lightly floured pasta through successively narrower settings of rollers until last notch, lightly sprinkling pasta with flour after each pass. Cover with clean cloth and let rest 10 to 15 minutes.

Cut pasta into thin noodles, passing through narrowest blades of cutter.

Boil tagliolini in large pot of boiling salted water until they rise to top or until cooked al dente. Drain immediately.

Meanwhile, heat 6 tablespoons butter in another pan. Cook diced zucchini until tender-crisp. Combine with hot pasta. Stir in remaining butter and Parmesan cheese. Serve very hot. Makes about 8 servings.