From a GrubStreet article – if you’re wondering why we might not be seeing favorite products during the pandemic. On a side note, I love Bucatini so when I saw a clearance cart of La Molisana bronze cut Bucatini made in Italy a few months ago for a quarter a 16 oz package, I took them all (dates 2023). sometimes the gods really do smile down.
Part I: The Mystery
Things first began to feel off in March. While this sentiment applies to everything in the known and unknown universe, I mean it specifically in regard to America’s supply of dry, store-bought bucatini. At first, the evidence was purely anecdotal. My boyfriend and I would bravely venture to both our local Italian grocer and our local chain groceries, masked beyond recognition, searching in vain for the bucatini that, in my opinion, not to be dramatic, is the only noodle worth eating; all other dry pastas might as well be firewood. But where there had once been abundance, there was now only lack. Being educated noodle consumers, we knew that there was, more generally, a pasta shortage due to the pandemic, but we were still able to find spaghetti and penne and orecchiette — shapes which, again, insult me even in concept. The missing bucatini felt different. It was specific. Frightening. Why bucatini? Why now? Why us?