Organic durum wheat pasta by Cipriani from Venice
Here you will find four classic organic durum wheat pastas from Cipriani, the gourmet house from the surroundings of Harry's Bar in Venice: Fusilli, Penne, Rigatoni and Spaghetti, each in 500 grams and in organic quality made from durum wheat semolina. Four shapes, one standard – pasta that keeps its promise in the pot just as it does on the plate.
Durum wheat pasta by Cipriani is dry-pressed organic pasta made from pure durum wheat semolina, bearing the hallmark of a house that built its reputation not in a pasta factory, but behind the counter of a bar at St. Mark's Square. There are four shapes to choose from, each made for a specific purpose in the kitchen, each available in a convenient 500-gram pack.
Pasta as Italy's daily craft
In Italy, pasta is not a side dish, but a separate course with its own time and its own claim to attention. Those who cook durum wheat pasta are following a craft that has lived off just two ingredients for generations: durum wheat semolina and water, nothing more is needed. Over 300 different pasta shapes are known in Italy, from simple spaghetti to shapes that have a different name just one province over.
Cipriani brings this craft from a house that stands for the exact opposite of ostentation. At the origin of the brand is a sentence that remains the guiding principle to this day: What is truly refined never needs excess.
Exactly this restraint can be found in every pack of organic Fusilli, organic Penne, organic Rigatoni and organic Spaghetti – no additives, no tricks, just organic-quality durum wheat semolina, carefully dried until the pasta gets that matte yellow color and the slight bite by which you recognize good pasta.
That may sound unspectacular, but it is not. Because it is precisely in this reduction that it shows whether a pasta is capable: whether it holds its shape during cooking, whether it accepts or rejects the sauce, whether that slight resistance remains on the palate that one calls al dente in Italian – literally "to the tooth", i.e., with bite.
Durum wheat, botanically Triticum durum, grows preferably in warm, dry regions like Apulia or Sicily and differs from softer bread wheat by a firmer, glassier grain. It is precisely this hardness that gives the pasta its stability in boiling water and that characteristic bite that distinguishes a good pasta from any other – anyone who has ever tried soft, overcooked pasta made from soft wheat will immediately appreciate the difference.
Two ingredients, a few minutes' difference in cooking time between the four shapes, a centuries-old craft: that is all a good durum wheat pasta needs to be convincing.
Four shapes from one kitchen
The Cipriani range of durum wheat pasta includes four classics of Italian cuisine, all made from organic durum wheat semolina and in the convenient 500-gram pack, which is enough for four to five portions.
The organic Spaghetti are the epitome of Italian pasta, long, round, uncomplicated – ideal for oil-based sauces that wrap evenly around each of the approximately 25-centimeter-long strands. The organic Penne are diagonally cut tubes which, with their slant, offer more surface area and thus more sauce per bite; their name comes from the Italian word for feather, because the cut edge is reminiscent of a quill pen.
The organic Fusilli twist in a spiral and trap small pieces of vegetables, bacon or cheese in their coils, playful and practical at the same time – the name is derived from the spindle around which pasta dough was once actually wound. The organic Rigatoni, finally, are the most robust of the four: wide, ridged tubes that can also withstand heavy, braised sauces and the oven; their ridges hold sauce in place where smooth tubes would let it slide off.
Four shapes, one recipe, one house behind it – whoever has all four in the pantry is prepared for the full spectrum of Italian cuisine, from quick after-work pasta in ten minutes to the Sunday family meal that can easily take an hour.
Before cooking, it is already evident in the dry pasta what will count later on the plate: a matte yellow, slightly rough surface, no smoothness like with cheap industrial goods. This roughness is created when the dough is shaped and ensures later in the pot that sauces adhere better – a small detail that Italian cooks have always paid close attention to when choosing between packs in the store.
Anyone who would prefer to try the more delicate, egg-enriched formats will find them in our Cipriani egg pasta collection, the house's second major pasta line.
Fusilli, Penne or Rigatoni? A question of the sauce
Which pasta shape fits which sauce is not a pure question of taste, but a question of physics: smooth, thin pasta like spaghetti likes smooth, thin sauces, while pasta with ridges, twists or tubes literally holds onto thicker, chunky sauces. Italian chefs call this the rule of the "pastina giusta," the right little pasta for the right sauce.
The organic Spaghetti or organic Penne go particularly well with light tomato sauces like the Pomod'oro pasta sauce because the sauce does not bead off, but spreads evenly. For heartier sauces with basil, such as the basil pesto, the organic Fusilli are suitable, with their spirals carrying the pesto in every twist.
And anyone planning a casserole or a braised sauce with plenty of meat should reach for the organic Rigatoni, which still show structure after thirty minutes in the oven and do not fall apart.
We especially like having all four shapes in the house and deciding based on our mood and the sauce – sometimes quickly with olive oil and garlic, sometimes elaborately with a sauce braised for hours, never boring. A small rule of thumb for this: the smoother the pasta, the simpler the sauce can be; the rougher and more twisted the shape, the more sauce it can handle.
From the bar at St. Mark's Square to your plate
On May 13, 1931, Giuseppe Cipriani opened a bar in a former rope warehouse in a narrow alley not far from Piazza San Marco – named after a young American named Harry Pickering, whom he had helped out of a financial emergency years earlier as a bartender at the Hotel Europa with 10,000 lire. Harry returned years later, grateful and with 30,000 lire in his pocket, with which Giuseppe opened the bar. Harry's Bar was born, named after the man to whom it owed its existence.
What began as a small bar in a side alley became a place where writers, painters and royalty met, including Ernest Hemingway, Peggy Guggenheim and Orson Welles, who came and went in Venice for decades. In 2001, the Italian Ministry of Culture officially declared Harry's Bar a national cultural monument, an honor bestowed upon only a few inns in Italy.
Giuseppe's son Arrigo Cipriani later took over the establishment and carried the family name from Venice out into the world, to almost thirty locations around the globe.
From this culinary tradition, Cipriani Food later emerged, bringing the recipes and the discipline of Harry's Bar to the kitchen table – including yours. In addition to pasta, the range includes sauces, olive oil, coffee and fine pastries, always with the same standard: nothing that would not also have been allowed in the kitchen of Harry's Bar.
You can find more from this house in the Cipriani Food collection, from sauces and olive oil to the fine egg pastas, which are built directly on the method that was once developed in the kitchen of Harry's Bar.
Cooking al dente and combining correctly
Durum wheat pasta needs plenty of boiling salted water, about one liter per hundred grams of pasta and about ten grams of salt per liter, and should only be added when the water is really bubbling. The package instructions are a good guide, usually between nine and eleven minutes depending on the shape, but anyone who tastes it a minute before the end of the cooking time will hit the mark more precisely – the pasta should still have a delicate resistance, no longer raw, but not soft either.
A dash of extra virgin olive oil, some garlic and chili go well with the organic Spaghetti, simple and ready in under ten minutes. The organic Penne like it creamier, for example with the Sansovina pasta sauce and freshly grated Parmesan. And those who want to get comfortable on a quiet evening can cook the organic Rigatoni with a hearty meat sauce and let them develop a golden crust in the oven, a good twenty minutes at 200 degrees.
A spoonful of pasta water, skimmed off just before draining, binds every sauce more smoothly than cream ever could – a small trick that Italian grandmothers knew long ago, long before it became the insider kitchen tip of cookbooks. Anyone serving a glass of dry white wine with this is rarely wrong; a look at our selection under Italian specialties fits well here.
Stored dry, cool and dark, durum wheat pasta easily lasts one to two years, completely without a refrigerator – a supply you can rely on when guests are suddenly at the door or the refrigerator is more empty than full at the end of the month. Once opened, it is best to close the pack with a clothespin or transfer it to a storage container, then it will remain good just as long.
Cipriani pasta for everyday life and for guests
Organic durum wheat pasta is uncomplicated enough for Tuesday evening and worthy enough for guests on the weekend – that is its real strength. A small package with all four shapes, supplemented by a sauce or the olive oil, is a fine gift idea for all who love Italy, completely without kitsch, but with real durum wheat semolina and a history over ninety years old in the background.
For durum wheat, organic primarily means one thing: cultivation without synthetic pesticides and artificial fertilizers, controlled according to the requirements of the EU Organic Regulation, from the field in Southern Italy to the packaging. For the cooking pot, this simply means a purer product with a shorter ingredient list and more confidence in what is actually inside – just two things, durum wheat semolina and water, no more and no less.
You can find sauces, pesto and risotto rice from Cipriani bundled in our Cipriani gourmet collection, while the egg-enriched pasta formats were already mentioned above and are worth a small trip of their own. And if you would like to look beyond Cipriani, you will find even more Italian pasta craft from other manufacturers in our large pasta selection, from the coast to the mountains.
Put the pot on, wait for the bubbling, and take your time for the rest. An evening in Venice can taste this simple, even if you are currently standing in your own kitchen.
