La Pasta di Aldo
exceptional home-made egg pasta from Le Marche
The home-style pastificio of La Pasta di Aldo can be found in the medieval village of Monte San Giusto which lies beneath the Sibillini Mountains. This artisanal pasta is produced at the hand of Maria Alzapiedi and her husband Luigi Donnari and the company grew from a desire to bring the food of their land to the rest of the world. Only the very best local ingredients are sourced, such as the carefully selected free range eggs and a very strict system of production is followed. They wake at dawn to start kneading and stretching the day's pasta dough which is a maximum output of 120kg, which needs to hang dry for a long time; night after night they attentively watch the pasta to judge the exact moment for the pasta to reach the perfect consistency.
Maria adds 'our choice of ingredients along with our production methods do not follow the traditions of home-made pasta factories, because we wanted to rediscover and rationalise the classical methods of home-made pasta production'
Each different pasta shape uses a different recipe of semolina, the dough for each type is worked only by hand and then the pasta is carefully hung on bespoke wooden frames and finally it is transferred to the special drying rooms which maintain a slow and natural temperature.
The most popular pasta shapes are 'Chitarrine', 'Tagliatelle', 'Pappardelle', 'Farrine', 'Fillini' and 'Saracene' but Maria is always working on new and innovative shapes so watch this space...
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