Perfect for a carbonara, a cacio e pepe, a vegetable and herb tomato sauce, a creamy salmon sauce, or a rabbit ragù — the fine ribbon of these fettuccelle was designed for one thing only: to carry the sauce across its entire width, never losing a drop along the way.

You can recognize a fettuccella by its suppleness: a fine ribbon, narrower than a fettuccine, that curls around your fork like a silk scarf — yet retains, to the bite, all the firmness of durum wheat.

Description

According to Bolognese legend, it was in 1487, for the wedding of the daughter of Ercole I d'Este, that Zefirano, personal cook to Count Giovanni II Bentivoglio, invented this pasta ribbon to dazzle the guests. Since then, in central and southern Italy, this narrow ribbon—which built the reputation of Roman cuisine, specifically that of carbonara and cacio e pepe—has been rolled and cut by hand.

Pasta Alica has been carrying on this same tradition since the 1920s, in Laurenzana, in the province of Potenza. It all began with Grandmother Anna, helped by two of her thirteen sons, Rocco and Francesco, who opened a small grocery store for local farmers. In 1928, this shop became the Michele Crisci wholesale house, one of the most important in southern Italy — and that same family passion still guides Pasta Alica today.

Everything starts with the finest Italian durum wheat, grown in the fertile lands of Basilicata and the Tavoliere delle Puglie. The grains are ground slowly into a fine semolina, then worked with pure Lucanian water at a temperature that never exceeds 25°C to preserve the wheat's natural proteins. The pasta is bronze-extruded, which gives each ribbon a slightly rough surface designed to hold the sauce along its entire length. It then dries slowly for nearly two days at between 36°C and 40°C, to maintain its amber color and a perfectly al dente bite.

You don't buy fettuccelle for an ordinary meal. You buy them for that moment when the ribbon curls around your fork, when the sauce coats it completely, and when every bite has the texture of a dish you could have eaten on a festive evening in a Roman trattoria.

And tonight, here, between two chores and an evening slipping by too fast, this same ribbon is curling in a pot somewhere in Canada. For the time it takes for a sauce to simmer, you are somewhere else — in Rome, or in Basilicata, where this tradition has never changed.

Why our customers love them:

• 🇮🇹 Made in Italy, in Basilicata
• 🌾 100% Italian durum wheat, grown in Basilicata and the Tavoliere delle Puglie
• 🥉 Bronze-extruded for a texture that holds sauce across its entire width
• 🌡️ Slow-dried for nearly 48 hours, between 36°C and 40°C
• 💧 Worked with Lucanian water at below 25°C
• 🍝 Fine, supple ribbon, perfect al dente cooking, ideal for classic Roman sauces
• 👵 Italian family heritage passed down since the 1920s