Rustichella d'Abruzzo

In 1924 Gaetano Sergiacomo, maternal grandfather of the current proprietors Gianluigi and Maria Stefania Peduzzi, and the son of famous millers who worked in the Vestina area, decided to part ways with the family and the milling business and established the pasta factory “Pastificio Gaetano Sergiacomo” in Penne. Gaetano's daughter, Nicolina Sergiacomo Peduzzi, was born in Penne and grew up in an environment abundant with baking, cooking and pasta making. In 1981, with her husband Piero Peduzzi, she decided to revive the orginal whole wheat pasta that Gaetano had made. Soon, Nicolina's adult children Gianluigi and Stefania Peduzzi joined the business, heralding a new era for the little known <em>pastificio </em>(pasta factory). With the vision of Gianluigi, Rustichella d'Abruzzo began to create a greater variety of pasta shapes within a small-batch production of durum wheat semolina pasta. In the late 1980's, Gianluigi introduced their whole wheat penne pasta to Dean & Deluca in New York City, their first U.S. customer. After a few years, the assortment of shapes and sizes produced in the small family <em>pastificio</em> grew to what is today: one of the most extensive artisanal pasta and product lines available in Italy. Today, Rustichella d'Abruzzo pasta is still made with the finest quality grains, blended with pure mountain spring water, extruded through bronze dies, and slowly air-dried at low temperatures for a rustic texture that holds sauce beautifully.