Faella - Paccheri (500g)

Paccheri is one of those shapes that makes people stop and look at the bowl. Wide, open tubes - almost comically large - originally from the Neapolitan tradition, and historically tied to a piece of Neapolitan folklore: the tubes were reportedly used to smuggle garlic bulbs across the border from Naples into Prussia, where a trade restriction had made Italian garlic scarce. The customs officers were looking for garlic; the garlic fit neatly inside the pasta. Whether or not the story is entirely true, it says something about the shape's most useful quality - these tubes hold things.

Faella has been producing this shape in Gragnano since the mill was established by Gaetano Faella in 1870. The Lattari Mountains channel cool, humid air toward the Bay of Naples, creating conditions that made the entire town into a natural pasta drying facility for centuries before electric ovens or industrial dryers existed. Pasta was laid out in the streets to dry in this wind - it's not a marketing metaphor, it's what actually happened.

Today, Faella dries their pasta for a minimum of 40 hours at low temperatures - far beyond the industry standard of under an hour at high heat. The slow drying preserves the protein and starch structure of the semolina, which is why Faella pasta holds its shape properly in the pot and doesn't begin softening the moment it's drained. Every shape is pressed through custom bronze dies - the method that leaves the characteristically rough, porous surface on the outside. That roughness is what makes the difference between a sauce that slides off and one that stays put.

In 2012, Gragnano received EU IGP certification as the first pasta-producing town in Italy to receive such recognition. Faella was among the ten original producers to earn that designation.

Paccheri wants a sauce that can fill it - a slow-braised short rib, a rich seafood bisque, a deep Neapolitan meat ragu. It also takes well to stuffing and baking.

Best for: Stuffed and baked, braised short rib, seafood bisque, Neapolitan Sunday ragu, truffle cream sauce.