Why You’ll Love This

This is the kind of rigatoni that makes the sauce feel like part of the pasta rather than something sitting on top of it. The broad tubes catch pieces of meat and vegetables, while the pronounced ridges hold onto everything from a slow-cooked ragù to a silky tomato or cheese sauce. It cooks with a satisfying bite and enough structure for baked dishes without becoming soft or fragile.

What Makes It Special

Pasta Panarese produces its pasta in the Val d’Orcia of Tuscany using durum wheat semolina, traditional bronze dies, and a slow drying process that can take up to 72 hours. Bronze drawing leaves the surface naturally rough and porous, helping sauce cling to every ridge and hollow center. The slow drying preserves the wheat’s toasted aroma and gives the pasta the firm, resilient texture that distinguishes carefully made artisan pasta from faster-dried commercial varieties.

Perfect Pairings

Pair it with beef, pork, lamb, or wild boar ragù; Italian sausage and peppers; tomato and basil sauce; vodka sauce; mushroom cream sauce; roasted eggplant; broccoli rabe; Parmigiano-Reggiano, Pecorino Toscano, ricotta, mozzarella, or a generous spoonful of pesto.

Serving Ideas

Toss with a hearty ragù so the meat settles inside the tubes, bake with tomato sauce, ricotta, and mozzarella, or pair with crumbled sausage and sautéed greens. For a simpler Tuscan-style supper, finish with good extra virgin olive oil, roasted tomatoes, garlic, and grated Pecorino. Reserve a little pasta water before draining—the rigatoni’s rough surface will help that starchy water emulsify beautifully with the sauce.

About the Producer

Pasta Panarese is a family-run artisan pasta maker in Castiglione d’Orcia, in Tuscany’s Val d’Orcia. The Panarese family follows a traditional, land-to-table approach, using bronze dies and patient low-temperature drying to create pasta with exceptional texture, aroma, and sauce-holding ability.

Tasting Notes: Toasted durum wheat, rustic semolina, firm al dente bite, rough sauce-gripping texture

Country: Italy