World’s rarest pasta may seem like over exaggerated title but it is true in this case as there is only 3 women in the world who can make this pasta! Yes, ladies and gentlemen we are talking about Su Filindeu also known as the threads of the God!
I think it is safe to assume pasta is a great universal food! It is liked by many different cultures, it is food for rich and poor and with so many variations and more importantly it is almost impossible to get tired of! As you can tell pasta is one of my favorite foods as well so when I first heard about world’s rarest pasta I was really intrigued. I wondered what makes it rarest, where can I find it and how it is done..etc. So here is what I found about it, let me share with you and let’s see who will get plane tickets first to go eat this pasta ☺
I guess it won’t be surprising when I say world’s rarest pasta Su Filindeu is from Italy! You need to go to Sardinia island (Sardegna in Italian) which is second biggest island in Mediterranean Sea. And for those of you who wondered which one is the biggest island but too lazy to Google it, it is Sicilia guys, you are welcome ☺
What exactly is Su Filindeu ‚ what makes it special?
The recipe for Su Filindeu is actually no secret, it is made by only 3 ingredients: Semolina wheat, water and salt! What makes it special is the hard work to create it and its special structure.
Once these ingredients have become dough, it has been divided into 256 perfectly even threads and then these thin threads are even further stretched. It doesn’t end here though, there is more! These now very very thin threads are diagonally placed on a round frame in a three-layer pattern. Afterwards it is left to dry and then divided into smaller pieces! As you can imagine it is so time consuming and requires lots of hand skills! Actually Su Filindeu became even more known when famous pasta brand Barilla and famous chef Jamie Oliver said they can’t do it after investigating how it is done!
Su Filindeu is usually prepared in a dish that is boiling sheep’s broth with grated pecorino. This very nutritious and thick soup is actually a good fit considering to whom it served in the past. For more than 300 years this dish was a special food, that is served only to people who completed their pilgrimage of 33 km road in biannual San Francesco Feast!
Luckily today you don’t have to do 33 km pilgrimage to taste this pasta; you can now found it in 3 local restaurant Al Ciusa, Il Rifugio and Agriturismo Testone.
So who makes this pasta? Who are these 3 people? Well answer is Abraini family! Su Filindeu has been the family recipe for Abraini family and passed on from one generation to another and currently Paula Abraini who is over 60 years old takes the head for this job but only two other women in the family knows it. Unfortunately her daughter is not much interested in taking this role and situation is same for other members. Actually Paola tried to teach it to other people outside of family as well but then after seeing the hard work and patience necessary students apparently didn’t showed up next day! So that’s why currently only 3 people can make it and there doesn’t seem to be next generation for it so far..
Therefore if you want to try world’s rarest pasta Su Filindeu I suggest you try it soon as possible, all these lovely ladies who can make this pasta is currently over 50 and we do not know how long they will continue doing it!
Even famous pasta chef Jamie Oliver tried to learn it for 2 hours and he gave up saying `I’ve been making pasta for 20 years and I’ve never seen anything like this`! To be fair it requires obviously more than 2 hours to learn it but still it is a good indication of how hard it is to make it. Paula said in the interview with BBC that since it is more about handcraft then ingredients even the elbow grease can be important and it needs years of experience to be able to understand the right texture for dough!
Is world’s rarest pasta title official for Su Filindeu, where is this title coming from?
Yes, I mean kind of! Slow food International has this list about culinary tastes that are about to be extinct and of the 3844 things in this list, Su Filindeu is the only pasta who can be produced by 3 people only, therefore it is the one that is most endangered and rarest!
I personally concurred after learning all this making process and how hard it is to pass this knowledge so I guess time to plan an Italy trip ☺
Before I go though, here is just a few more additional info about Su Filindeu. So I said you can now find this delicacy in local restaurants but if you still want to see it festival time and maybe interested in doing the pilgrimage yourself check dates in may and october for San Francesco Feast. I think current dates for 2017 is 1-9 May and 1-4 October .
Also of the 3 restaurants you can eat this pasta, in Al Ciusa you can find a different version of it blackened by squid ink and actually won some award I believe. Be aware that this restaurant is an upscale one, so it may not be a fit for every travel budget.
And please please let me know if you went there and had a chance to try this pasta, I’m curious about the taste and experience!
Let me know if you have any other questions or comments about Su Filindeu!