Bucatini really is the perfect pasta. Whimsically bouncy, wriggling about your plate as you twirl them into submission. Their long, hollow centers creating small explosions of sauce with every bite. Who could resist?
As Maggie Hennessy puts it in her piece for salon.com, bucatini pasta “reliably improves your mental state” and “wholly encompasses the textural, sensual, soothing joy of eating”. We totally agree, and so were absolutely thrilled when she approached us to comment for her piece “A love letter to bucatini, the perfect pasta shape”.
This perfect shape dates back to at least the 16th century, and its popularity has only grown ever since. Remember the Great Bucatini Shortage of 2020? We certainly do. While our supplier Pastificio Faella made certain we never ran low, we never saw such crazy demand for one type of pasta!
The family-run Faella factory has produced pasta for 115 years in the small town of Gragnano. “They had built the whole village so that the main road, called Via Roma, would catch this particular breeze from the mountains to the sea”, Beatrice tells Maggie for Salon.com.
Couple that balmy breeze with Gragnano’s “proximity to wheat-growing fields” and access to mountain spring water “that encases it on three sides”… it’s no surprise this town is known as the “Città della Pasta”!
Faella fully embodies its hometown’s identity. Their pastas are bronze-extruded and slow-dried as they are supposed to be. Such obsession with quality means yields are low and production costs are high, but this is a small price to pay for exceptional pasta.
Read Maggie Hennessy’s full piece for salon.com here
Ready to eat some bucatini? Try Sicilian Pasta with Anchovies and Toasted Breadcrumbs or our version of Alison Roman’s Tomato-y, Shallot-y Pantry Pasta.