Bosco Pastificio

Bosco Pastificio is the pasta works of the food company Bo.s.co S.p.A. in Valdisotto, in the Valtellina valley (province of Sondrio, Lombardy). Its roots go back to the 19th century and Pastificio Villa, which stood by the Bitto stream in Morbegno and used its water to drive the machines. In the 1960s the Rapella brothers took it over; as Pastificio Rapella it worked buckwheat flour into the Valtellina pizzoccheri. Bo.s.co bought the pasta works in 1992 and in 1996 moved production to a new site in Valdisotto. According to the company, it now makes more than 300 tonnes of pasta a year for shops in northern Italy and Switzerland.

The range has two lines. Bosco Pasta Secca is dry pasta: pizzoccheri in skeins, nests and short strips, Pizzoccheri della Valtellina PGI, pizzoccheri di Bormio, buckwheat gnocchetti, egg tagliatelle, tagliatelle with chestnut flour, apples, blueberries or porcini, and lasagne sheets. Bosco Pasta Fresca is fresh pasta: fresh pizzoccheri, egg tagliatelle, taiadin with five cereals and filled tortelli.

The company's own quality seal, "La Sana Cucina Valtellinese", means that the flour is mixed with mountain spring water from Valdisotto below 15 °C, the dough is rolled in layers as at home, and the pasta is dried slowly in static cells (up to 50 hours for some shapes), without preservatives or colourings. Its pizzoccheri contain a high share of wholegrain buckwheat flour (25–26%) with durum wheat semolina; the egg pasta uses category A eggs. The classic dish for its pizzoccheri is pizzoccheri alla valtellinese, with potatoes, cabbage or chard, butter, garlic and cheese.