Tuscan pici pasta is a traditional dish made with handmade pasta. Pici are robust and can take on any kind of sauce to compliment their unique texture.
Pici is a rustic handmade pasta from Tuscany’s Val d’Orcia. Called pici in Cortona and Montepulciano, and pinci in Montalcino, they are a long, irregular spaghetti, best when “fatta a mano” or “fatta in casa”, made by hand, or in house. The name pici comes from the term “appiciare”, which refers to the traditional manual technique used to form these long, thick noodles. Ancient in origin, dating back to the Etruscans, they were made from only flour and water, the poor everyday pasta of the Sienese peasants. Including a small amount of egg was the rich version, reserved for Sundays and holidays.

There are several different ways of producing pici, all of which require only your hands, a wooden board, and optionally a rolling pin – no pasta machine needed. The traditional “appiciare” technique involves rolling out a larger quantity of dough into a sheet around 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. You cut a strip of dough about 1/4” thick from this sheet, grasp one end in your fingers to hold, then, using a flat palm, roll the noodle back and forth on a floured wooden board to round and lengthen.