🧄 Pici all'aglione

Pici all'aglione is a Tuscan first course: thick hand-rolled pici in a sauce of tomatoes cooked slowly in olive oil with plenty of garlic. The Accademia Italiana della Cucina lists the recipe among Tuscan dishes, and the Tuscany Region notes that aglione is best known precisely as the dressing for the famous Tuscan pici.

Aglione is not ordinary garlic (Allium sativum) but a local variety of Allium ampeloprasum var. holmense from the Val di Chiana in Tuscany and Umbria. According to the Region, it was saved by local farmers; it is already on the national list of traditional agri-food products (PAT) and has now also been entered in the regional repertory and the national agrobiodiversity register as a local variety at risk of extinction.

The Accademia recipe for four is simple: 400 g of pici, 6 garlic cloves, 5 ripe tomatoes, extra virgin olive oil and salt. The pici are cooked in plenty of salted boiling water, stirred now and then. Meanwhile 4 tablespoons of oil are heated in a wide pan, the peeled and chopped garlic goes in and is kept over a low flame for about five minutes so that it colours without burning. The tomatoes are then added and cooked gently until done, the sauce is seasoned with salt and pepper, and the pici are tossed in it and served piping hot.

The Accademia describes the pici themselves too: flour is kneaded with water into a shiny, compact dough that rests for about 20 minutes, is rolled out 5 mm thick, cut into strips one centimetre wide and rolled under the palms into long smooth strands a little thicker than spaghetti. Besides aglione, they are dressed with tomato sauce or with 'salsa briciolata'.