Pici all'aglione is the country pasta of Siena and the Valdichiana: thick, hand-rolled eggless spaghetti in a slow sauce of tomato and aglione, the giant sweet garlic of the valley. The pici are made from just flour and water, each strand rolled out by hand so no two are alike, and the sauce is little more than aglione melted into tomato with olive oil and a little chilli. Rustic and filling, it is the classic pairing for the red Vino Nobile di Montepulciano.
Pici, also called pinci around Montalcino, are among the oldest pastas of southern Tuscany, a poor food of flour and water rolled by hand long before egg pasta became common; popular tradition traces the shape back to the Etruscans of the Sienese hills. Their defining sauce is built on aglione, a giant relative of garlic grown in the Valdichiana between Siena and Arezzo, whose cloves can weigh several hundred grams yet taste milder and sweeter than common garlic, so mild it earned the nickname aglio del bacio, the kissing garlic, for leaving no strong breath. Sugo all'aglione is a deeply local Sunday sauce of the Chiana country, and pici all'aglione is the dish traditionally set beside the great red of the zone, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano.
The pici are chunky and chewy, with a real bite that catches the sauce in their rough, hand-rolled surface. The aglione sauce is round and sweet, tomatoey with a warm garlic depth but none of raw garlic's harshness, lifted by a little chilli and good olive oil. It is simple, hearty peasant food, the pasta itself as much the point as the sauce.
Made from only flour and water, pici rely entirely on gluten for their texture: kneading and the long hand-rolling develop and align the gluten strands, and a rest lets the flour fully hydrate, giving the dense, elastic chew that egg plays no part in here. The sauce turns on the nature of aglione. Garlic's pungency comes from allicin and related sulphur compounds formed when a clove is cut; aglione, a milder Allium, carries far less of these, and long gentle cooking breaks the sharp compounds down further, so the tomato takes on a sweet, mellow garlic flavour rather than a raw bite. As the sauce simmers, water evaporates and the tomato's sugars concentrate and lightly caramelise, thickening it to a glaze that coats the coarse pasta.
Variations
The sauce keeps close to a simple base of aglione, tomato, oil and chilli, though some cooks add a splash of white wine or a little guanciale or pancetta, and the amount of garlic and heat is a matter of taste. Pici carry many other classic dressings of the Siena country: cacio e pepe with local pecorino, a breadcrumb sauce, duck or rabbit ragù, or a game ragù of hare and wild boar. Around Montalcino the same pasta is called pinci, and near Anghiari a related shape is known as bringoli.
On the Palate
Where Pici all'Aglione sits in the Italian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4
How it's made
7 steps · 45 min
- 115 min
Make a firm dough from flour, water, a little olive oil and salt; knead well until smooth, then cover and rest.
- 225 min
Roll the dough thin, cut into strips and roll each strip by hand into a long, thick, uneven strand of pici; dust with semolina.
- 38 min
Peel and finely chop the aglione cloves.
- 48 min
Sweat the aglione gently in plenty of olive oil with a little chilli, without letting it colour.
Watch outSweat the aglione slowly without letting it color — long gentle cooking mellows it sweet; browning turns this mild garlic sharp and bitter.
- 540 min
Add the peeled tomatoes, season, and simmer the sauce slowly until thick and sweet.
- 66 min
Boil the pici in well-salted water until tender with a firm bite, a few minutes.
Watch outBoil the flour-and-water pici until tender but still firm at the core — with no egg, they turn gummy if overcooked, so keep the bite.
- 74 min
Drain and toss the pici in the sauce over the heat with a little cooking water, then serve with olive oil.
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