Pici all'Aglione

Make Ahead and Storage

The sauce keeps 4 days refrigerated and freezes for 3 months. Fresh pici freeze raw for 2 months.

How to Make Pici all'Aglione

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1. Knead the flour, water, oil and salt into a firm dough, 10 minutes. Rest 30 minutes under a cloth.

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2. Roll the dough 1 cm thick, cut into strips, and roll each strip under your palms into a long fat noodle about the thickness of a pencil. They will be uneven, which is correct.

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3. Slice the garlic thinly and put it in a wide pan with the 8 tbsp oil over the lowest possible heat.

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4. Cook 15 minutes, stirring, until it has collapsed into a sweet paste. It must not take any colour at all.

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5. Add the tomatoes, chilli and salt and simmer 30 minutes, crushing the tomatoes against the pan, until thick.

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6. Boil the pici for 5 to 7 minutes — they are thick and take longer than they look.

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7. Toss through the sauce with a splash of pasta water, finish with the oil and basil, and serve without cheese.

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Related guide: Prep, cook and total time.

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Worth Knowing

• Fifteen minutes of very low heat on the garlic. No colour at all.
• Roll them uneven. Machine-perfect pici are not pici.
• No cheese. The sauce is three things and that is the point.

Why the Method Is What It Is

The garlic is softened in oil over very low heat for a full fifteen minutes before the tomato goes in, until it collapses to a sweet paste — this is a sauce with three ingredients and garlic browned even slightly turns the whole thing acrid. Aglione, the Tuscan giant garlic, is mild enough to use in the quantities the dish calls for; with ordinary garlic use half as much and poach it in milk first if you have the time.

Serving Ideas

A glass of Chianti · Crusty bread · Green salad

Sides from the same cuisine on this site: Creamy Parmesan Polenta, Cauliflower Risotto, Ciabatta.

Changing the Recipe

• An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.

Pici all'Aglione FAQ

Pici all'Aglione Nutrition Facts

Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.

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