In 1924, Gaetano Sergiacomo started making rustic pasta using the whole wheat flour produced at his family’s stone mill in the small town of Penne in Abruzzo, Italy. In 1981, his daughter, Nicolina Peduzzi, decided to revive the pastificio (pasta factory), naming the new product line Rustichella d’Abruzzo. More family members joined the business, which quickly grew to offer one of the most extensive artisanal pasta lines in Italy.

Rustichella d’Abruzzo starts with the finest quality grains, blends them with pure Apennine mountain spring water, extrudes the pasta through bronze dies and slowly air-dries it for a rustic texture that holds sauce beautifully.

Nicolina, the matriarch, remains the keeper of the company’s artisan core values, which she demonstrates personally at every incredible meal she cooks for the family—and lucky friends (in fact, in the Peduzzi family, many important business decisions are made over a heaping dish of spaghetti!). The family passion for quality is evident in every choice they make.