Pasta by region
Pasta from Tuscany
Tuscan pasta is plain on purpose. The region's signature is pici, fat strands rolled out one by one by hand from nothing but flour and water, with no egg and no machine. They are dressed simply, with garlic and tomato (all'aglione) or with toasted breadcrumbs. Where richer cooking appears it tends to ride the widest cuts: pappardelle, broad ribbons made for the slow-cooked wild boar ragu, cinghiale, that follows the autumn hunt, or for hare and duck. Campanelle, ruffled bells, catch chunkier sauces in their flares. The thread through it all is cucina povera, the cooking of scarcity turned into a virtue, where the shape is humble and the sauce is whatever the season and the woods provide.
The shapes of Tuscany
| Shape | Family | Section | Cook (min) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Campanelle | Shaped shorts | fluted cone with ruffled edge | n/a |
| Pappardelle | Ribbons | broad flat ribbon | 4-9 |
| Pici | Hand-formed regional | thick irregular hand-rolled round strand | 5-8 |
Learn it from someone
- Giulia Scarpaleggia, Juls' Kitchen
Teaches hands-on Tuscan cooking at her family's kitchen studio in the Sienese countryside, market-to-table and seasonal classes that include rolling fresh pasta by hand. A cookbook author who has been writing about Tuscan food for over a decade.
People who teach this, listed because we think they are good at it. We take nothing for these.