''Pici'' (, ) is thick, hand-rolled

pasta Pasta (, ; ) is a type of food typically made from an Leavening agent, unleavened dough of wheat flour mixed with water or Eggs as food, eggs, and formed into sheets or other shapes, then cooked by boiling or baking. Pasta was originally on ...

, like fat

spaghetti Spaghetti () is a long, thin, solid, cylindrical pasta.spaghetti
Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Una ...

.'' Il Devoto-Oli. Vocabolario della lingua Italiana'', edited by

Luca Serianni Luca Serianni (; 30 October 1947 – 21 July 2022) was an Italian linguist and philologist. Biography Serianni was professor of Italian language at Sapienza Università di Roma. A student of Arrigo Castellani’s, he conducted research about I ...

and

Maurizio Trifone Maurizio Trifone (born 1953) is an Italian linguist and lexicographer. Biography Trifone is professor of Italian language at the University of Cagliari. From 1995 to 2005 he was professor of Lexicography and Lexicology at the Foreigners Universit ...

, Le Monnier. It originates in the

province of Siena The province of Siena (, ) is a Provinces of Italy, province in the Tuscany region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Siena. It has 259,826 inhabitants. Geography The province is divided into seven historical areas: * Alta Val d'Elsa * Chian ...

, in

Tuscany Tuscany ( ; ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of 3,660,834 inhabitants as of 2025. The capital city is Florence. Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, artistic legacy, and its in ...

; in the

Montalcino Montalcino is a hill town and ''comune'' in the province of Siena, Tuscany, central Italy. The town is located to the west of Pienza, close to the Crete Senesi in Val d'Orcia. It is from Siena, from Florence and from Pisa. Monte Amiata is l ...

area they are also referred to as ''pinci'' (). The dough is typically made from

flour Flour is a powder made by Mill (grinding), grinding raw grains, List of root vegetables, roots, beans, Nut (fruit), nuts, or seeds. Flours are used to make many different foods. Cereal flour, particularly wheat flour, is the main ingredie ...

and

water Water is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a transparent, tasteless, odorless, and Color of water, nearly colorless chemical substance. It is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known liv ...

only. The addition of

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the ...

is optional, being determined by family traditions. Alternatively, finely chopped or shredded

spinach Spinach (''Spinacia oleracea'') is a leafy green flowering plant native to Central Asia, Central and Western Asia. It is of the order Caryophyllales, family Amaranthaceae, subfamily Chenopodioideae. Its leaves are a common vegetable consumed eit ...

can be used in place of water. The dough is rolled out in a thick flat sheet, then cut into strips. In some families, the strip of dough is rolled between one palm and the table, while the other hand is wrapped with the rest of the strip. It can also be formed by rolling the strip between the palms. Either method forms a thick pasta, slightly thinner than a common pencil. Due to its handmade nature, this pasta is not uniform in size and has variations of thickness along its length. It is eaten with a variety of sauces and meats, particularly:

References

{{Pasta Types of pasta Cuisine of Tuscany

See also

References