What is "pici"

Pici \Pi"ci\ (p[imac]"s[imac]), prop. n. pl. [NL., fr. L. picus a woodpecker.] (Zo["o]l.) A division of birds including the woodpeckers and wrynecks.

Picus \Pi"cus\, n.; pl. Pici. [L., a woodpecker.] (Zo["o]l.) A genus of woodpeckers, including some of the common American and European species.

n. A kind of hand-rolled pasta, like thick spaghetti, from Sienna.

Pici are thick, hand-rolled pasta, like fat spaghetti. It originates in the province of Siena in Tuscany; in the Montalcino area it is also referred to as pinci.

The dough is typically made from flour and water only. The addition of egg is optional, being determined by family traditions.

The dough is rolled out in a thick flat sheet, then cut into strips. In some families, the strip of dough is rolled between one palm and the table, while the other hand is wrapped with the rest of the strip. It can also be formed by rolling the strip between the palms. Either method forms a thick pasta, slightly thinner than a common pencil. Unlike spaghetti or macaroni, this pasta is not uniform in size and has variations of thickness along its length.

It is eaten with a variety of foods, particularly:

Food category

Italian

English

sauces

breadcrumbs

spicy garlic tomato sauce

porcini mushrooms

cheese and black pepper

a meat-based sauce

rowspan=3|game meat

wild boar

hare

duck

Pici is one of the two suborders of the order Piciformes and includes two infraorders Ramphastides (toucans and barbets) and Picides (honeyguides and woodpeckers). Members of this suborder are often called "true piciforms" as it was thought the jacamars of Galbulidae and puffbirds of Bucconidae (of the other piciform suborder Galbuli) not closely related to toucans and woodpeckers, but instead to the order Coraciiformes. However, analysis of nuclear DNA in a 2003 study placed them as sister group to the rest of the Piciformes, also showing that the groups had developed zygodactyl feet before separating. Per Ericson and colleagues, in analysing genomic DNA, confirmed that puffbirds and jacamars were sister groups and their place in Piciformes.