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Sagne e Torce, Twisted by Hand at Notch 3
By The Dough Table25 Sep 2026

Hand-Rolled & Cut · Demanding

Sagne e Torce, Twisted by Hand at Notch 3

Sagne e Torce，第 3 档手工搓条

The Abruzzo version of a buckwheat noodle: no eggs, no machine cut. A 3.4 mm sheet is cut into 8 mm bands and each band is twisted once against the board before it is hung.

Flours
Buckwheat flour (grano saraceno)
Egg
Water only, no egg
Water
50%
Sheet
3.4 mm
Cut
8 mm
Drying
Hung on a dowel · 10h
Work
75 min + 45 min rest
Serves
5

1The ratio

portions
Sagne e Torce, Twisted by Hand at Notch 3 — 5 portions
Flourgbaker’s %
Buckwheat flour (grano saraceno)15038%
Doppio Zero soft wheat (00)25063%
Eggno egg50%
water20050%
olive oil82%
salt41%
Dough weight612 g50% Water

Per portion ≈ 122 g. Every ratio on this site is a baker’s percentage against the flour weight.

2The roller

3.4mm
  1. 14.8 mm
  2. 24.2 mm
  3. 33.4 mm
  4. 42.6 mm
  5. 52 mm
  6. 61.6 mm
  7. 71.2 mm
  8. 80.9 mm
  9. 90.6 mm

Notch by notch 1 → 2 → 3

Cut at 3 (3.4 mm) → 8 mm Cut

Sauce for this

Arugula, chilli and walnut

芝麻菜、辣椒与核桃

Arugula, chilli and walnut is a rough, oily sauce with whole pieces in it. Sagne e torce is rough and oily too, and the two textures match instead of one disappearing into the other.

Holds 2% vegetable

Flour

  • 150 g arugula, half chopped, half left whole
  • 60 g walnuts, broken
  • 2 garlic cloves, 1 dried chilli
  • 80 ml olive oil
  • 60 g pecorino
  • Juice of half a lemon

Method

  1. Toast the walnuts in a dry pan until they smell of oil paint, about 2 minutes.
  2. Add the oil, garlic and chilli and warm gently for 3 minutes.
  3. Add the chopped arugula and let it wilt for 30 seconds only.
  4. Toss with the pasta, the whole arugula, pecorino and lemon, all off the heat.

Arugula has two lives: cooked it is bitter and vegetal, raw it is peppery. Using both halves in the same pan is the point.

The twist is not decorative

A flat 8 mm band cooks into a limp ribbon. Twisted once between the palm and the board, the same band becomes a short helix with a groove that holds sauce and a shape that keeps its bite even after eight minutes in the pot.

Twist in one direction only, from the near end away from you. Twisting back and forth makes an S-shaped noodle that untwists completely in the water.

The stiffest dough on the site

50% hydration with no egg produces a dough that fights the rolling pin for the first three minutes and then suddenly cooperates. Push through it; adding water to make the early stage easier gives you a dough that will not hold a twist and sags off the dowel.

Rest 45 minutes, the longest rest on the site. Buckwheat and semolina hydrate at different rates, and this dough needs both of them to finish before it can be rolled evenly.

Rolling thick and cutting wide

Roll 1 - 2 - 3 and stop at 3.4 mm. Below that the twist has nothing to hold: a 2 mm band twisted will simply snap at the thinnest point.

Cut the sheet into 8 mm bands with a wheel, working across the sheet rather than along it, so the bands are as long as the sheet is wide. Lift each band with a fork, not your fingers, and twist.

Cooking and the salt question

These noodles are dense. Eight minutes at a rolling boil, and they still come out firm at the core, which is correct — sagne e torce are meant to be chewed.

Because there is no egg and no fat, the water is your only chance to season them: 12 g of salt per litre rather than the usual 10. Drain and toss immediately with the sauce off the heat.

Drying

  1. Hang the twisted bands over a dowel, 2 cm apart, so the twists do not touch.
  2. Dry 10 hours in moving air; the twist traps moisture at its centre, which is why this shape takes longer than an untwisted band.
  3. Check at 8 hours by snapping one: it should break cleanly through the thickest part of the twist.
  4. Store hung-shape in bundles tied with string, not in a bag.

Keeping Three weeks in a paper bag. Twisted shapes are much more resistant to breakage than flat ones, so these store and travel better than any other hand-cut noodle here.

When it goes wrong

Twists come undone in the pot
Because S-shaped noodles from twisting both ways, or a dough that was too wet at 52% and above.
Do this Twist one direction only, from near end to far. Keep hydration at exactly 50% and weigh the water.
Bands snap during twisting
Because Sheet rolled below 3.4 mm, or the dough was not rested the full 45 minutes.
Do this Stay at notch 3 and give it the full rest. A 3.0 mm band will twist, but one in five will break.
Noodles still hard at the centre after 8 minutes
Because Bands cut wider than 8 mm, so the core never reaches temperature.
Do this Measure the first three cuts. Above 10 mm the cooking time doubles and the outside goes to mush first.

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