Rustichella d’Abruzzo: The Passion And Love Of Italian Pasta
Marking its 100th anniversary in 2024, Rustichella d’Abruzzo has always celebrated the traditions of Italian culture and family by making the finest pasta on the market.
The basic ingredients for making authentic Italian pasta are quite simple — durum wheat semolina is the core, a coarsely ground wheat flour. But there are several secret and intangible ingredients that will never find themselves for sale on a shelf: family, tradition, quality, integrity and perhaps, most importantly, love. These are the very essence of Italian pasta.
Rustichella d’Abruzzo Italian pasta brand has embraced, respected and cultivated these secret ingredients for 100 years, capturing the hearts of chefs and food enthusiasts worldwide.
Established in 1924 in the heart of the Abruzzo region, the pastificio (pasta factory) is now led by the brother-sister team of Gianluigi and Maria Stefania Peduzzi, who honour their grandfather’s legacy by upholding longstanding traditions of artisanal pasta production.
Rustichella d’Abruzzo pasta is lovingly crafted in small batches using top-quality durum wheat semolina blended with pure Apennine mountain spring water and extruded through bronze dies, the perforated metal sheets that cut and shape the pasta, to produce a rustic texture that holds any sauce beautifully, then slowly dried at very low temperatures, a process that further enhances its distinctive flavour and lets it cook perfectly al dente every time.
It is this care, commitment, passion and love that Rustichella d’Abruzzo has been bringing to pasta-making for a century, which the owners say is a testament to their history and the legacy of their family’s traditions. “One hundred years of history means a bit of travelling back into the past, going back to our roots, to the family stories,” says co- owner Maria Stefania Peduzzi in a recent interview with Dolce Magazine conducted in Italian with Dolce publisher and editor-in-chief Michelle Zerillo-Sosa. “Though we never got the chance to know our grandparents, the stories we learned about them tell a very familial story because on Sundays, since it was a large family, everyone would gather at home for Sunday lunch. To make this lunch pleasant, an aunt of my grandmother’s prepared pasta with a pasta machine, kneading the eggs and semolina. So, obviously times have changed, but we try to maintain traditions of a unique lunch with the whole family all gathering together. It carries those memories forward for you as well as the flavours, and those sensations stay with you. I call it an inheritance — a great and beautiful inheritance — and that has always guided us.”
It is impossible to pinpoint exactly where the strength and togetherness of Italian families comes from — but it most certainly is a deep-seated feeling within almost every Italian family. Perhaps it can be traced back to the volatile tribalism of ancient Rome, or to the horrors of enduring two world wars, or perhaps even to the close-knit cohesion they needed to allow them to not only survive but thrive after immigrating post-turn of the 20th century to the new world in North America, where few of them spoke the language — whatever the source, that strength and togetherness is real.
The warm feeling, taste and quality of fine Italian pasta are all reflected across the extensive Rustichella d’Abruzzo product offerings. Today, it offers Italy’s most extensive artisanal pasta line — from traditional shapes like spaghetti, bucatini and penne to regional specialties including trofie, fregola sarda, strozzapreti and many more. Its products also include sauces, grains and other specialty items. The Peduzzi family continues to marry traditional craftsmanship with pioneering innovation and cutting-edge technology in order to share the distinctive Abruzzese pasta with the world and, in its own small way, make family gatherings even warmer and happier.
Peduzzi says, “Rustichella, in my opinion, is a way of life. While it’s true day-to-day life has us always on the run, I think cooking a plate of pasta means spending 10 minutes of quality time. But it’s also a way to invite, in our daily routine, to sit down with others in front of a plate of pasta. You can smile, encourage, confront, complain or anything else. But, most importantly, you are gathering around a table together with a good plate of pasta, which means you are relating to each other. Perhaps even today that ability is diminishing, but I am a person who thinks that even when setting the table, setting the plates — today that’s not done so often anymore, but it’s a way to create the rituals which encourage conversations.”
While honouring Italian traditions, the Peduzzi family has always ensured that Rustichella d’Abruzzo has also embraced innovation to meet the demands of modern living.
“WHILE IT’S TRUE DAY- TO-DAY LIFE HAS US ALWAYS ON THE RUN, I THINK COOKING A PLATE OF PASTA MEANS SPENDING 10 MINUTES OF QUALITY TIME.”
— Maria Stefania Peduzzi
“Rustichella is true to traditions, but we have also continued to implement a series of innovative products, such as a pasta which cooks in just 90 seconds,” says Peduzzi. “We even have a pasta with the addition of fruit, which is a way of responding to a market, which honours the truth and tradition of pasta but also responds to market needs such as pasta with superfoods. In the case of our 90-second pasta, it’s a product that meets today’s needs, and who doesn’t want a good plate of pasta while spending less time to prepare it?”
While Abruzzo in Italy may be less well-known compared to regions such as Tuscany, Lombardy and Lazio, over time Peduzzi discovered it to be a region rich in characters and in artists, and she often found herself reading ancient texts to learn more about it. She discovered one of the important things about Abruzzo that concerned Rustichella was its long history of creating pasta with ancient grains.
“For example, I have many ancient texts talking about durum wheat, since it was in my interest to have knowledge of durum wheat. I also saw the historical evolution it went through. The search for ancient grains comes from research done by agronomists in the 1700s and 1800s. I found that the king during the Bourbon Kingdom invested in agronomists and scientists to write, tell and list the characteristics of the grain,” she explains.
While craftsmanship and the manufacturing process has made Rustichella d’Abruzzo one of the finest pastas in the world, the foundation of the company is its deep family legacy, which has driven the growth of the brand. Maria’s brother spoke about that legacy in a recent speech marking the company’s 100th anniversary.
“First and foremost, we want to remember those who made this milestone possible but are not with us today,” said Gianluigi Peduzzi. “The vision was very far-reaching, but if we remember every moment, it is our forefathers who had the courage to embark on this adventure during a very difficult period of Italian history devastated by two world wars. Our forefathers had the foresight to understand that the interest in high-quality artisanal pasta was growing in both national and international markets.”
“Family, unity — my mother, Stefania and Giancarlo have always been with me on the front line as we embraced the idea from the beginning, knowing it wouldn’t be easy but confident we would achieve results,” continued Gianluigi in paying tribute to his family. “We chose pasta from my maternal grandparents because it was and is the most consumed food in Italy, and being appreciated abroad allowed us to travel and discover new worlds. Today, Piero, Carolina and Stefano, who joined the company in 2020, are bound by a family bond to prepare and manage the future. They will need to continue to grow and communicate the values that have always distinguished us: distinction, seriousness, integrity, fairness and humility.”
Italian pasta tops many people’s lists as their favourite comfort food. For a century, through care, innovation, a commitment to quality and an extensive knowledge of the history of the Abruzzo region, along with those intangible ingredients of love, passion, tradition and family, Rustichella d’Abruzzo has been making Italian pasta taste even more delicious — the very essence of Italia.
