Welcome to Fili di Dio

Elisa Silva enjoys making exquisitely shaped, decorated cookies and pasta of all sorts. She stumbled upon Fili di Dio (translation threads or wires of God) while making the Italian stamped pasta named Corzetti. Enamoured with artistic, intricate designs, she wondered if the semolina dough could be used to make the rarest pasta in the world, also known as Su Filindeu in Sardinian dialect.

Thus the journey began. After tedious hours and many uncooperative dough trials, she took a deep dive into the science of semolina flour merging with water and salt. So simple, yet so elusive, only a handful of women and men around the world can actually accomplish the feat of hand stretching the dough to reach the requisite 256 ultra-fine strands. A single thread can pass through the eye of a needle. The threads are laid in a crisscross pattern in three layers on a round wooden board, or a fundu, and dried naturally. The result is one whole round that when held up to light reveals the complex artistry of woven threads. It is then broken into manageable pieces. Traditional preparation for serving is in a lovely lamb broth. The pasta floats like a woven raft on the tongue, delicate and silky in the rich broth simmered with Pecorino cheese.

Her Italian/German heritage (mother’s family from Naples, father’s from Germany) proved helpful in her quest. She appreciates the cultural artistry and sensory touch one must possess to manipulate the pasta. It is akin to dancing with the dough. It also helped to be persistent, diligent and an early riser. 

Today she is committed to helping preserve the culinary art form of Fili di Dio. Making the pasta is labor intensive and time consuming, hence disappearing in Italy and around the world. It is listed on the Ark of Taste, an international catalogue of endangered heritage foods which is maintained by the global Slow Food movement.

Elisa makes the Fili di Dio entirely by hand at her home she shares with husband Mario (from the Azores, Portugal) in Sunnyvale, California, the heart of Silicon Valley.