At Pastificio Martelli, Tuesdays and Fridays are for Spaghetti. Specifically, Tuesday is for Spaghetti and Friday for Spaghettini. Yes, the Martelli family only produces 5 shapes of pasta, one per weekday. In addition to their crown jewels Spaghetti and Spaghettini, they make Maccheroni, Fusilli, and Penne.
Best ingredients. Pasta Martelli is made with 100% Italian semola and the water of Lari, Toscana. You can smell its sweet grainy aroma as soon as you drop the pasta in the boiling water.
Artisanal extrusion. All Martelli pasta is extruded through bronze dies, creating that signature porous surface that soaks up all the sauce and doesn’t leave much on the bottom of your bowl.
Gentle drying. Both long and short shapes rest in the drying rooms for 50-52 hours at a temperature that never goes above 95°F.
It’s all about gluten. Dino Martelli (in the pic) confessed that the secret of making pasta that cooks SO evenly is avoiding to stress the gluten. Here’s why stressed gluten makes for a chewy pasta that is hard to digest.
To sum it up with Dino’s own words: “what the biggest industrial pasta makers do in FIVE HOURS, we do in ONE YEAR.”
? Let’s get cooking! ?
HERE ARE OUR FAVORITE RECIPES FOR EACH MARTELLI PASTA SHAPE:
