Instructions
Knead flour, 20 ml oil, a pinch of salt, and about 200 ml warm water into a firm, smooth dough. Rest 30 minutes under a bowl.
40 minRoll the dough 1 cm thick, oil the surface lightly, and cut into thin strips. Roll each strip under your palms, from the center outward, into a long noodle the width of a bucatino. Park the pici on semolina.
40 minSlice the aglione thin and melt it in the oil over the lowest heat, never coloring, until it crushes under a fork, 10 to 12 minutes; help it with a splash of wine.
12 minCrush the garlic into the oil, add the tomatoes, breaking them by hand, the chile, and salt. Simmer until thick and sweet, about 20 minutes.
20 minBoil the pici in well-salted water until tender with a proud chew, 4 to 6 minutes depending on thickness.
6 minTransfer the pici to the sauce with a ladle of their water and toss over the heat until each noodle is gloved in red. Serve hot, no cheese required.
3 min
Chef's Tips
- No aglione? Tame your garlic: Blanch ordinary cloves twice from cold water before melting them in oil; you lose the bite and keep the perfume, which is the whole idea.
- Irregular is authentic: Pici should vary like handwriting. Even thickness matters only within a single noodle, so it cooks evenly end to end.
- The same pici take famously to briciole, fried breadcrumbs, when tomatoes are out of season; keep that trick for winter.






