Perfect for a slow-cooked meat ragù, a mushroom and cream sauce, a robust tomato sauce, or a perfectly golden pasta gratin: the tripoline ribbon was designed for one thing—to hold the sauce on both sides, down to the very last bite.
A tripolina is recognized by its wide ribbon, smooth on one side, ruffled on the other, and by that curly edge that holds more sauce than the flat side. One bite, two textures, and one true pleasure.

From the first bite, something happens in your mind even before you've finished chewing. The brain recognizes this distinct texture, this ribbon that offers just the right amount of resistance, and it doesn't try to analyze it: it feels. A sense of calm first, like walking into a kitchen where someone was waiting for you. Then a quiet joy, the kind felt at a large table in Italy where no one checks the clock and the ruffled edge of the ribbon holds a little treasure of sauce. And deep down, that sweet, nostalgic longing for a Sunday you feel you’ve lived before, even if you never have. The flavor lingers on the palate, and the emotion lingers even longer.

According to popular tradition, this ruffled-edge ribbon was imagined in Naples in honor of King Victor Emmanuel II. A pasta designed for grand occasions, it has retained a beautiful allure and a strong character from its origins. Even today, it is found in meat ragùs and gratinated dishes across Southern Italy.

Pasta Alica has been carrying on this same expertise since the 1920s in Laurenzana, in the province of Potenza. It all began with Grandmother Anna, assisted 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 significant in Southern Italy, and that same family passion still guides Pasta Alica today.

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

You don’t buy tripoline for an ordinary meal. You buy them for that moment when the ribbon unfolds on the plate, when the sauce clings to its curly edge, when every bite tastes like a Sunday in Italy, and when no one wants it to end.

And somewhere in Canada, on a weeknight moving too fast, someone drains these tripoline and closes their eyes for a second. For the duration of one plate, they are somewhere else—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 rough surface that holds sauce
• 🌡️ Slow-dried for nearly 48 hours, between 36°C and 40°C
• 💧 Processed with Lucanian water at less than 25°C
• 🍝 Ribbon smooth on one side, ruffled on the other; ideal for meat ragùs, mushroom sauces, and gratins
• 👵 Italian family heritage passed down since the 1920s