Val di Chiana e d'Orcia

The pici are a type of pasta similar to spaghetti, but thicker. Four simple ingredients make up their dough which, once well blended and worked with care by housewives, was rolled out not too thin and cut into strips. The next painstaking work of competent hands worked the pasta into long necklaces to boil in water and salt, on the fire, in an iron pan, bread crumbs were fried in oil to become a tasty seasoning.

Preparation:
1. Make a well in the middle of the flour in the middle and put in the water and the egg and mix. Mix everything to a fairly soft dough and roll out the dough with a rolling pin to a thickness of ½ cm. Add a little oil to the dough so that it is easier to knead.
2. Cut strips of about one centimetre and roll out ("pinch") with the palm of the hand. Do not worry if the thickness is uneven: it is one of the main characteristics of handmade pici.
3. In a pan with the oil brown garlic and finely chopped red pepper. When the garlic is golden, add the bread crumbs. Leave the crumbs on the fire until crisp.
4. Cook the pici, drain and sauté them in the pan with the crumbs. Serve hot adding a pinch of parsley and grated pecorino cheese.