Just Twice A Year The World’s Rarest Pasta Is Eaten

Su filindeu, meaning “threads of God” in Sardo — a language similar to Latin — is the rarest pasta in the world, made by only a scant few women in the Sardinian city of Nuoro.

The pasta continues to be the focal point of the biannual Feast of San Francesco, which happens in May and October, where it’s served in a mutton broth with pecorino cheese.

Made from semolina wheat, water, and salt, the pasta is rolled out, stretched, and folded back until there are 256 fine strands of pasta, each one about half as wide as angel hair.

The strands are then stretched onto a circular board in a criss-cross formation and left to dry, creating the mesmerizing su filindeu weave that can be broken off and cooked.

The intricate process of stretching the dough so finely, among other complexities of the technique, renders the pasta challenging to prepare and vulnerable to being lost to time.