The World’s Rarest Pasta Is Hidden in the Mountains of Sardinia
For most of its centuries-long history, su filindeu was a tradition passed down through a single line of matriarchs from Nuoro, a town in the mountainous interior of the island. In fact, Ms. Abraini came to learn the intricate craft from her mother-in-law at 16.
Whereas most handmade pasta in Italy is rolled out with a wooden dowel called a mattarello, every pass of su filindeu dough halves the width and doubles the number of strands. Do that eight times and you end up with the requisite 256 threads.
Such finesse requires a not-so-secret ingredient: salt, which tightens the network of gluten in the flour, giving the dough the elasticity required to stretch so thin.
It’s not a recipe that can be read and recreated by enterprising cooks in kitchens abroad; the technique must be felt in the flesh, learned through repetition and error until the fingertips know the difference between just right and just wrong. To master it requires mastering many variables, including the effect of hard water versus soft water, when to add the salt solution, how to adjust to the weather. This level of dedication has made younger generations of local women reluctant to take up the practice.
Many have come to Nuoro to learn but few have succeeded at the intricate craftwork. Even the pasta barons of Barilla, the world’s largest pasta company, couldn’t crack the code for these noodles.
Ask five pilgrims why they make the journey, and you’ll get varied answers: For faith. For pride. For a loved one. For exercise. And, of course, for pasta.
One thing that most pilgrims agree on: this is as good as su filindeu gets. For centuries, it was served exclusively at San Francesco di Lula. But recently a few restaurants in Sardinia started to serve the pasta outside of the pilgrimage.
Context is everything, though. Eaten any other time, the dish doesn’t taste the way it does after an overnight mountain hike. It’s the effort that matters — both in the making of the pasta and the pilgrimage to eat it.
