PastaTrend: handcrafted pasta by Giovanni Fabbri

In the last two days we made our daily pasta dish with a particular kind of pasta, an handcrafted pasta made by Giovanni Fabbri in Tuscany.

We knew the owner of the pasta factory at the fair in Bologna known as Pasta Trend. He had drawn our attention for the passion he showed talking with people in his stand. His words were evidence of his love for the traditions, the hearth and its products and his work, obviously. Carlo and I got closer to listen to him better and look at a video. The video was sending images about the art of growing and harvesting wheat around Siena, Grosseto and Pisa according to the ancient tradition discovered again in the 1970s, the art of grinding wheat in a water-powered mill and finally the art of making pasta. Making pasta in the Fabbri factory is quite different from making pasta industrially. Semolina and water are mixed as it happens in every pasta factory in Italy, the difference is in the following steps. In fact  pasta dough passes through heavy bronze trafile (dies) patterned with the designs for scores of pasta shapes. The movement through the bronze trafile is very slow and so pasta is rough to the touch and can absorb the sauce easily.  At last pasta is put in drying cupboard and here the temperature is always under 38°C. If  temperature is more than 38°C the gluten is altered and the pasta’s ability to absorb water and sauce is compromised.

Have you understood? This is the secret of a great pasta!

But Carlo and I want to taste personally everything and so we brought home a precious packet of this pasta.

First of all this packet remembered us our infancy when our parents bought the pasta by weight and carried it home wrapped in brown paper …

We had great expectations and … now we tell you what happened in the last two days.

At first we decided the kind of sauce to toss this pasta. We wanted a simple sauce that enhanced the pasta if the pasta was good as we thought.  So we created a sauce whose recipe you can read on this page. It’s a duck-and-tomato sauce.

Pasta by Giovanni Fabbri tossed with duck-and-tomato sauce

This dish was successful, very successful!  The pasta is a great pasta, a good-quality pasta. When we opened its packet the pasta  smelled fantastic! The same aroma we smelt when children …

The second day we chose a typical Tuscan sauce called fava bean-and artichoke pasta sauce, Maremma-style. It is also known as poderana sauce. Its recipe is very simple. Read more here.

Pasta by Giovanni Fabbri tossed with poderana sauce, Maremma-style

What was the result? fantastic as the first day!

Visit the site of Giovanni Fabbri and discover more about his factory and his work.

Look at his products.  He has also very interesting gift packs.

This factory is in the Chianti Street in Tuscany. Go and visit him if you are in Tuscany.

Greetings from Italy

Carlo e Loretta