Pasta’s many forms range from commonly known versions like fettucine to such lesser-known varieties as the threaded sheets of Sardinia’s su filindeu, or the stuffed cjarsons, an Alpine ravioli, from Friuli. But one version stands out among the myriad shapes—corzetti (also known as croxetti), a unique, engraved pasta found in Liguria, Italy’s sea-fronting region that runs from the Côte d’Azur to Tuscany.
Most references date corzetti to the Middle Ages, but it’s a pasta that has survived to this day, thanks to the efforts of a group of artisans, chefs, and cooking experts like Enrica Monzani of A Small Kitchen in Genoa, a website devoted to the historical culinary traditions of Liguria. Monzani calls the pasta “edible art.”