Faella - Tofe (500g)

Tofe is not a shape you'll find in most pasta dictionaries. It's a short, ridged tube with a slight twist - a specifically Gragnanese form that emerged from the bronze-die artisan tradition of southern Italian pasta making and doesn't really exist outside of it. The shape is only possible because of bronze extrusion: the geometry is complex enough that Teflon dies can't hold it cleanly. The twist, the ridges, the slight irregularity - these are products of working in bronze.

Faella has been making pasta in Gragnano since the mill was founded by Gaetano Faella in 1870, and Gragnano's pasta history goes back considerably further. The Duke of Gragnano granted permission for mills along the Vernotico river in the 1600s, and for centuries the streets of the town were used as drying racks - pasta hung out in the mountain wind that descends from the Lattari range toward the sea. That wind is the reason Gragnano became what it became, and the reason the EU formally recognised the town's pasta tradition with IGP protected status in 2012.

Faella was among the ten original producers to carry the IGP designation - a mark that requires pasta to be produced within Gragnano using local spring water, bronze dies, and low-temperature air drying. The Tofe carries all three. It dries for a minimum of 40 hours in the same mountain air that Gragnano pasta makers have been using for three centuries.

The ridged exterior and twisted form create maximum sauce contact - more surface area, more texture, a shape that engages with sauce from multiple angles simultaneously. The short format makes it ideal for baked dishes, where it traps sauce between layers, and for chunky pan sauces with enough body to fill each crevice.

Best for: Baked pasta, chunky meat ragu, puttanesca, pasta salad, sausage and tomato.