Twenty-eight seats, one dough, six shapes. Witte de Withstraat 62. Two tables held back for walk-ins, every night.
Three of the six are on tonight
Pecorino romano, black pepper cracked to order, and the starch water the tonnarelli was cooked in. Four ingredients, and three of them are in the pasta. Square-cut strands hold a sauce that is mostly water; round ones let it slide.
2 mm square, plain dough
on tonight
this morning
of 34
Beef shin, four hours, and enough parmesan to finish it. Egg goes into this dough because the sauce is heavy and a plain sheet two fingers wide would tear before it reached the plate.
28 mm wide, egg dough
on tonight
this morning
of 26
Clams opened in the pan, courgette cut fine, chilli, and nothing else. Bronze-drawn and left rough on purpose so oil and clam liquor stay on the strand instead of pooling at the bottom of the bowl.
1.9 mm, plain dough
on tonight
this morning
of 22
We change one pasta a week. Everything else stays.
Six shapes, one dough, and a menu short enough that the kitchen can be perfect at it rather than adequate at twenty things. If your favourite is gone it will be back, and if it is on you should order it.
Rolled between 07:00 and 11:00, every day
Semola rimacinata from a mill outside Altamura, water, and nothing else in the plain dough. Egg goes in only where the shape needs it to hold a heavy sauce, which is why the pappardelle tastes different from the spaghetti and the tonnarelli tastes like neither. Everything is cut the morning of service and what is left at 23:00 goes home with the kitchen.
Square-cut, thick enough to hold a sauce that is mostly water and cheese.
Plain dough · guitar cutter
Two fingers wide, egg-rich, for the ragù that has been going since morning.
Egg dough · hand cut
Bronze-drawn and rough on purpose, so clams and oil do not slide off it.
Plain dough · bronze die
Ridged and short. The only shape we keep for the tomato that cooks four hours.
Plain dough · bronze die
Thinner than the pappardelle and cut on a different day of the week.
Egg dough · hand cut
Rolled around an iron rod, one at a time, which is why it is on Saturdays only.
Plain dough · al ferretto
Twelve bottles, six by the glass
Corkage is €15 and we will pour it for you gladly, with one condition: not something already on this list.
The table along the back wall seats twelve and can be booked on any night except Saturday. For fourteen and up we close the room, which means the whole restaurant, one seating, and a menu we write with you the week before.
There is no room hire and no minimum spend. What there is instead is a deposit of €20 a head, which comes off the bill.
Tue to Fri, from 18:00
One seating, any night
Per head, off the bill
So the dough can be planned
Witte de Withstraat 62, Rotterdam