Borella - Fusilli Handwrapped (500g)

Fusilli is one of those shapes that looks simple but is cleverly engineered. The three ridges of the helix create a surface area that flat or smooth pasta cannot match. Sauce does not just cling to fusilli - it gets caught inside the coils, so every forkful delivers pasta and sauce together in the right ratio. The shape was designed with a specific job in mind, and it does it well.

Borella's hard wheat fusilli takes this further. Durum wheat semolina produces a coarser texture on the exterior of the pasta - visible if you look closely, immediately obvious when sauce hits it. It grips. It holds. It doesn't slide.

Hard wheat pasta also behaves differently in boiling water. The protein structure is tighter, which means it holds al dente longer and doesn't go soft and floury if you're thirty seconds late pulling it from the pot. That resilience is useful particularly when you finish pasta in the pan with the sauce - the extra time over heat costs you nothing texturally.

Borella slow-dries their pasta at low temperatures. The process takes longer than industrial high-heat drying but preserves the proteins and starches in the pasta, which produces a better cooking water - starchier, more useful for emulsifying sauces - and a pasta that tastes genuinely of wheat rather than just of texture.

These fusilli are a proper kitchen staple. They pair well with almost everything, are forgiving to cook, and do what good pasta is supposed to do: make the dish better without drawing attention to themselves.

Best for: Pesto, arrabbiata, meat ragu, vegetable sauces, pasta bakes, and any sauce with enough body to get caught in the coils.