The rarest pasta in the world

The chances that you’ve ever had the chance to taste this pasta are slim. Extremely thin. In fact, even in Italy few people have ever had the opportunity to taste them. And for good reason, this pasta, called Su filindeu – which can be translated as “The sons of God”

A Sardinian family treasures the recipe for the rarest pasta in the world. A 300-year-old tradition classified as a Unesco heritage.

“A lot of people say I have a secret that I don’t want to reveal. But the secret is there, right in front of your eyes. It is in my hands ”

The city of Nuoro, in Sardinia (Italy), is preparing to celebrate Saint Francis. A religious celebration which is the occasion to eat the rarest pasta in the world. Raffaela Marongiu is one of ten people to know the secret of Su filindeu. Semolina flour, salt, water … It’s hard to get simpler. The art is to stretch the dough into thin filaments like a needle.

They are then placed on a circular frame in successive layers until obtaining a sort of lace 1 meter in diameter.

The Su filindeu must then rest for 24 hours in the open air. The next day, Rafaela breaks the resulting disc into small pieces.

Above all, these “sons of God” require a lot of experience, unfailing patience and the skill of a lacemaker.
“Nobody remembers how, or why, the women of Nuoro started to prepare the Su filindeu, but for 300 years, the recipe and the technique have never ceased to circulate among the women of the Abraini family”

Great Italian entrepreneurs came to her. They wanted to industrialize the process, but gave up. This know-how has been classified as a World Heritage Site by Unesco.

Sources / France info, Slate.fr and BBC