Selecting the wheat
Selecting excellent primary materials is the first step, the most important one in fact, in creating unique pasta.
Penne a Candela n° 340
Penne a Candela are a delicious variation of the classic Penne Lisce which are especially popular in southern Italy.
This pasta is much thicker and wider (than the Candele from which they take their name) and thanks to the size, can capture the sauce much better.
The lack of ridges is compensated for by a surprising softness which makes it exceptionally delicate on the palate. It is a delicate and sophisticated pasta which brings out the best in aromas, flavours and fragrance.
In Italian, the term "Penne" refers to the goose feather which was used historically to write with and was cut on a diagonal to achieve a really thin tip. The shape, obtained from a pasta tube, can be smooth or ridged, of varying length and has the typical diagonal cut of a quill.
Penne are one of the few types of pasta for which there is an exact date when it was created. Indeed, in 1865, a pasta-maker from San Martino d'Albaro (Genoa), Giovanni Battista Capurro, requested and obtained a patent for a diagonal cutting machine. The patent was important because it meant the fresh pasta could be cut like a quill without crushing it and in different lengths from 3 to 5 centimetres (mezze "half" penne or penne). The document preserved in the Central Archive of the State of Rome reads: "Up until now, a diagonal cut could only be made by hand with a pair of scissors which, in addition to being slow and time-consuming, also resulted in an irregular cut which flattened the pasta".
Penne a Candela are ideal for preparing oven-baked dishes, but they are also equally as good for pasta dishes served with meat sauces or vegetable sauces made with tomatoes with the addition of peppers, courgettes, aubergines, olives and capers.
Available in 500g pack.s
- Cooking time: 12 min - Al dente: 10 min
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Our method
Attention, care, experience, quality at every stage: from our mill to your table.
The milling
We have been millers for almost two centuries: way back in 1831, Don Nicola De Cecco was already producing “the best flour in the county” in his mill. To this day, we grind all the wheat in our own mill next to the pasta factory, floating with intense and delicious aromas.
The dough
Cold water and dough at a temperature of less than 15 degrees: two details allowing us to produce pasta that fully respects the primary material.
Drawing
While it is the drawing process that gives the pasta its shape, it is the rough die that make our pasta uniquely porous, so it captures all the sauce. Hence, this is one of the special procedures we have chosen to preserve and protect. With great pride.
Drying
Another of the secrets behind our pasta is slow drying at low temperature. It is our way of keeping the sensory properties of the wheat intact.
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Tagliolini n° 206
Tagliolini are part of the family of long pasta wound into nests, made from thick rustic sheets of pasta.
The origin of this pasta is contested between Genoa, Naples and the Ciociaria area (central Italy).
It dates back to as early as the 17th century as shown by the "Bando contra Vermicellari" (Announcement to the Vermicellari district) issued in October 1602 in which the latter was ordered to adhere strictly to the price caps for the price of certain types of pasta including "Tagliolini bianchi". Stiff fines were imposed on anyone who disobeyed this order. Girolamo Aleandri in "La difesa dell'Adone" (the Defence of Adonis - Venice 1630) refers to Tagliolini in a description of everyday life at court: "During gentlemen's recreation in the house of the Marquis of Pepoli, one said to the other as a joke that he must have been drunk on tagliatelli, that soup made with fine pasta strips, which in many places in Lombardy are called lasagnette, and in Rome (if I am not mistaken) tagliolini". A closer look at the more recent history of rural traditions in Abruzzo reveals that tagliolini were served in chicken or pigeon broth to nursing mothers because they were light, but also very nutritious.
The size of tagliolini makes them perfect for vegetable or meat-based broths. Their natural versatility makes them especially tasty in pasta dishes with light sauces made from tomatoes, butter or soft cheeses. In the Naples area, they are the main ingredient in traditional pasta pies and oven-baked pasta dishes.
Available in 500g pack.s
