Recipes Dinner Pasta and Noodle Dishes Pasta Pici Pasta with Roasted Garlic and Tomatoes A mostly hands-off roasted tomato and garlic sauce lets you focus on rolling thick, chewy pici from scratch. By Meryl Feinstein Meryl Feinstein Meryl Feinstein is a chef, pasta maker, and food writer who left the corporate world in 2018 to graduate top of her class at the Institute of Culinary Education. After working at the renowned Lilia and Misi restaurants in New York City, where she was part of the pasta production team, she founded Pasta Social Club, a platform for sharing a love of food and learning. She now lives in Washington, D.C., where she develops recipes and teaches pasta-making workshops. Food & Wine's Editorial Guidelines Updated on August 7, 2026 Save Rate PRINT Share Close Credit: Victor Protasio / Food Styling by Micah Morton / Prop Styling by Missie Neville Crawford Active Time: 1 hr 35 mins Total Time: 2 hrs 50 mins Servings: 4 Jump to recipe Pici is one of the easiest fresh pastas to make, requiring only flour, water, olive oil, and hand-rolling — no pasta machine necessary.Brushing the dough with olive oil while rolling prevents the strands from drying out and cracking, making the shaping process more forgiving for beginners.A sheet pan of slow-roasted tomatoes and garlic transforms into a rich, jammy sauce while you make the pasta, so both components are ready at about the same time. If you’ve never made pasta from scratch before, pasta expert Meryl Feinstein recommends starting with pici, a thick, hand-rolled spaghetti from Siena that looks like a plump udon noodle. Made with all-purpose flour, water, and olive oil, pici requires no special equipment, making it an ideal pasta for beginners. Feinstein likes to coat the dough in olive oil before rolling it out because pasta dough dries out quickly. “The more time you take to roll out the pieces, the more the surface will dry out and start to crack. I never like people to feel rushed, and olive oil is a little bit of insurance; it keeps the dough silky and smooth.” While the tomatoes and garlic roast into a rich, jammy sauce, the pasta dough gets its required hour-long rest before its final shaping, so both components come together at about the same time. Simply combine canned tomatoes, two heads of garlic, olive oil, salt, and pepper in a baking dish and roast until the tomatoes are concentrated and the garlic is meltingly soft. By the time you’ve finished rolling the pici, you’ll have a deeply flavorful tomato sauce finished with butter, Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, and fresh basil. The history of pici Pici is a traditional hand-rolled pasta from Tuscany, particularly around Siena. Its name comes from the Italian verb appiciare, meaning to roll or stretch dough by hand. Made from just flour, water, and olive oil, pici is a hallmark of la cucina povera — Italy’s tradition of simple, resourceful cooking built around inexpensive pantry staples. Notes from the Food & Wine Test Kitchen Homemade pici is more delicate than dried pasta. Lift the noodles from the cooking water with tongs or a spider instead of draining them in a colander to help keep the strands intact. Suggested pairing Light-bodied, lively Italian red: Coppo L’Avvocata Barbera d’Asti Keep Screen Awake Ingredients 1/2x 1x 2x Oops! Something went wrong. Our team is working on it. This recipe was developed at its original yield. Ingredient amounts are automatically adjusted, but cooking times and steps remain unchanged. Note that not all recipes scale perfectly. Original recipe (1X) yields 4 servings Sauce 1 (28-ounce) can whole peeled plum tomatoes or cherry tomatoes, undrained, can reserved 3/8 teaspoon kosher salt, divided 3/8 teaspoon black pepper, divided 1/4 cup water 2 medium garlic heads 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil 2 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 ounce) Pasta 3 cups all-purpose flour (about 12 3/4 ounces) 3/4 cup warm (110°F) water, plus more as needed 2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil, divided, plus more for drizzling Semolina flour or cornmeal, for dusting Kosher salt, for water 1/4 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, plus more for sprinkling Fresh basil leaves (optional) Directions Make the sauce: Preheat oven to 375°F. Pour tomatoes with juices into a 13- x 9-inch baking dish. Stir in 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Swirl 1/4 cup water into empty can to capture juices; set aside. Cut tops off garlic heads to expose cloves; sprinkle with remaining 1/8 teaspoon salt and remaining 1/8 teaspoon pepper. Nestle garlic, cut side up, in center of tomatoes. Drizzle garlic and tomatoes with oil, making sure exposed cloves are coated in oil. Cover baking dish with aluminum foil. Roast in preheated oven 45 minutes. Remove from oven and carefully remove foil. (Steam will be released.) Increase oven temperature to 425°F and immediately return baking dish to oven. Bake at 425°F until garlic is soft and caramelized in spots, 20 to 25 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool slightly, about 15 minutes. Squeeze garlic cloves from skins into tomato mixture; discard skins. Transfer tomato-garlic mixture to a blender. Process until smooth, about 15 seconds. (Alternatively, mash tomatoes and garlic together in a medium bowl until well combined.) Transfer 1 1/2 cups sauce to a large skillet or saucepan; freeze remaining sauce for another use. Stir butter and reserved tomato water in can into sauce in skillet. Cover and cook over medium, undisturbed, 5 minutes. Remove from heat. While tomato mixture roasts, make the pasta: Pulse flour, 3/4 cup warm water, and 1 tablespoon oil in a food processor until ingredients are evenly distributed and couscous-like beads of dough form, about 5 pulses. Mixture should come together easily when pressed; if too dry, add warm water, 1 teaspoon at a time, pulsing after each addition. If too sticky, pulse in a dusting of flour. Transfer dough to a work surface. Knead until smooth and firm, 5 to 10 minutes. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Let rest at room temperature 1 hour. Dust 2 large baking sheets with semolina flour. Cut a one-quarter portion from dough; rewrap remaining dough to prevent it from drying out. Flatten smaller dough portion using palm of your hand. Using a rolling pin or wine bottle, roll dough into a 1/4-inch-thick rectangular slab. Brush slab on all sides with 1 teaspoon oil to prevent drying and cracking. Cut slab into 1/4-inch-wide strips. Using your fingers, roll each strip into a thin, rustic strand (2 to 3 millimeters thick). Coil each strand into a spiral; place on prepared baking sheet. Repeat process with remaining wrapped dough and oil, cutting 1 portion at a time and keeping remaining dough portions covered. Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high; season with salt as desired. Carefully unfurl pici, shaking off any excess semolina, and drop into boiling water. Stir gently to prevent sticking. Cook, undisturbed, until tender, about 3 minutes. While pici cook, uncover sauce and reheat over medium-low, stirring often. Using tongs, transfer cooked pici to sauce in skillet, reserving cooking liquid in pot. Cook mixture, gradually adding cheese and stirring constantly, until cheese is melted, about 1 minute. Loosen sauce by adding reserved cooking liquid, 1/4 cup at a time, if needed. Divide pici evenly among 4 bowls. Sprinkle with additional cheese and drizzle with additional oil. Garnish with basil, if desired, and serve immediately. Make ahead Pasta can be prepared through Step 5; roll strands in semolina before coiling and freeze on baking sheet until solid, 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer to a ziplock plastic freezer bag; freeze up to 3 months. Boil frozen pici as directed in Step 6, adding 1 to 2 minutes to cook time and gently stirring to release coils. Cook this recipe and more in the MyRecipes app. Get the App Save Rate Print Loading shell for RecipesUgcThreaded1 Vue component in Globe.