The Pici, sometimes called “pinci”, are a typical product of Sienese food, directly deriving from the very old Etruscan tradition. They’re a sort of spaghetti traditionally hand-made, even if their modern production has included specific machines. If they’re hand-made, they look very rude and have an irregular shape, while the machine production makes pieces having a diameter never thinner than 3mm. Generally eaten as main course with meat or vegetable sauces, their raw materials are flour, water and salt. The hand-made ones take form from a paste made with soft wheat “0” flour, salt and extra-virgin olive oil. If you want to have them “al dente” you can add one egg for every kilo of flour. From the pastry regular cylindrical stripes of paste are obtained, which are “pulled” by hand on a flat wooden board and powdered with seed corn or maize flour. At this point the pici are laid down and let to rest on a cloth, then powdered with flour once again. Their cooking lasts about five minutes. In Siena and its province, the pici are garnished with meat sauce, a lot of garlic, oil and chilli pepper (these are “pici all’aglione”). Very good if matched to duck and other game sauce.
Prodotto realizzato all’interno del Progetto di Valorizzazione dell’agroalimenatare senese 2009 promosso dalla CIA di Siena e cofinanziato dalla CCIAA di Siena.
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