Pastificio Fabbri in Gourmet Traveller

An issue dedicated to Italy, Tuscany, and pasta

Gourmet Traveller – May 2010

Italian translation of the article: (Download the original English article here)

Excerpt from the article:

"Giovanni Fabbri, one of the only eight artisanal pasta producers left in Italy today, has incorporated pasta into his DNA. The origins of his family go back several generations. The family pasta factory has been located in the square of Strada in Chianti since 1893. Once, the village was surrounded by wheat fields; today, they are harder to find, but Fabbri insists that the quality of the natural Tuscan wheat he purchases (at no small price) is one of the keys to producing truly exceptional pasta.

'The art of artisanal pasta is an integral part of Italian culture, but over the years, pasta has become more industrial and has lost that special quality that you can only achieve if you produce it at very low temperatures and let it dry for a long time,' he explains.

You’ve probably heard that the Teflon-coated dies through which industrial pasta is made are not suitable for producing a high-quality product, but seeing the bronze dies used here – some of which are over a century old – really brings the point home.

Fabbri is convinced that, aside from the quality of the raw materials, the reason artisanal pasta is superior to industrially produced pasta is the drying time. While industrial producers use heat to dry their pasta in ten hours, at the Fabbri factory, the drying process takes anywhere from two to five days, resulting in pasta with a richer flavor, a firmer texture, and better sauce retention.