Rustichella Maccheroni

Rustichella pasta has been produced in Abruzzo, home to the most famous Italian pasta, since 1924, and see making pasta as an ancient art - the historical and cultural heritage of their land. Rustichella premium pasta is produced from expert artisan traditions and its raw materials, production process and resulting product are worlds away from commercially produced dried pasta. As testament to its superior quality, Rustichella pasta is used by famous chefs in restaurants around the world. The difference? Taste, texture and yield.

Rustichella pasta is made very slowly over a period of 50 to 70 hours. The best hard durum wheat is stone-ground and mixed with pure mountain water to produce a dough which is mixed and kneaded for twice as long as it would be for commercial pasta (which is mixed, kneaded, quickly forced through a teflon die and drying machine, and is bagged and ready for shipping in 2 to 3 hours). This longer process of Rustichella improves the flavour and texture.

The dough is then forced slowly through a bronze die, is cut and then hung to dry slowly while temperature and humidity is carefully controlled. Extrusion through the bronze dies means that Rustichella pasta has a rougher texture which helps your sauces stick.

Because of the slow extrusion process, the pasta is quite compressed, giving it a very high 'swell rate' - 25% as opposed to 12% for normal dried pasta. To the person in charge of the pot, this means that it goes a lot further than you think it will – 500g will feed 5 to 6 people. It also means that it needs to be cooked in plenty of boiling water - 1 litre per 100g. Its structure means it not only cooks to 'al dente' but will hold and reheat 'al dente' as well.