Bucatini — Zelli Pasta

2026-03-21T13:16:00-07:00

Bucatini looks like spaghetti but has a narrow hole running through the center — "buco" means hole in Italian. That hollow core fills with sauce as you eat, delivering flavor from the inside and outside simultaneously. The classic Roman preparation is all'Amatriciana, but bucatini works equally well with a simple butter and cheese, a garlicky clam sauce, or anywhere you'd use spaghetti and want something more interesting.

Zelli is a family-owned pasta maker in Springdale, Arkansas, founded by Mitchell Owen and Angelina Bowen. Their bronze dies are custom-made in Italy — the rough, porous surface they leave on the pasta is what makes sauce cling rather than slide off. Organic North American durum semolina, slow dried at low temperatures to preserve flavor and nutrition. Two ingredients: flour and water.

Bucatini — thick hollow spaghetti, Roman tradition