Mill Valley Pasta Co. — Bronze-Cut Artisan Dried Pasta

Small-batch, bronze-cut pasta that actually holds onto your sauce.

Mill Valley Pasta Co. makes every shape in small batches in San Rafael, California, from organic semolina and water. The dough is pushed through bronze and brass dies, which leave a rough, almost velvety surface on the outside of each piece — that texture is what makes sauce cling instead of sliding off. Then it's dried slowly in open air, the old way, so it cooks up with a real al dente bite.

Supermarket pasta is extruded through Teflon dies and flash-dried in hours. It's smooth, slick and cooks up soft. Once you've cooked a bag of bronze-cut, it's hard to go back.

Who this is for

• You cook pasta every week and want it to taste like something
• You want organic, short-ingredient pantry staples — most shapes are just organic semolina and water
• You're making a sauce worth the effort and want a pasta that deserves it
• You want a hostess gift or a dinner-party upgrade that costs under $15

The shapes

Plain — organic semolina: Fettuccine, Linguine, Lasagna, Cavatappi, Fusilloni, Big Rigs (rigatoni), Scarabocchio, Strozzapreti, Paccheri, Fazzoletti.

Flavored: Conchiglie with squid ink, Campanelle with saffron or red onion, Fusilli with smoked paprika, Trecce with sweet fennel, Cavatelli with ricotta, Radiatore with basil.

Ramen: real alkaline noodles made with kansui, the mineral water that gives ramen its springy chew. Plain or black garlic.

Details

• 10–14 oz bags depending on shape
• Contains wheat (gluten). Most shapes are vegan; Cavatelli contains ricotta and Conchiglie contains squid ink
• Keeps up to 12 months from manufacture
• Cook in heavily salted water; start tasting 2 minutes before the bag says

Mill Valley Pasta Co. is a small pasta maker in San Rafael, California, selling at Marin farmers markets and from their own shop.