Here in America, the availability of regional Italian food is booming. Restaurants have shifted away from serving a broad catalog of Italian cuisine in favor of focusing on the culinary delicacies of a specific area. Liguria, Sicily, Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna—each of these regions provide a wealth of dishes to populate a menu.

It makes sense, too, that the best restaurants would choose to do this, since specificity is key to selling a well-made product. But even as the fare grows more niche, we’re discovering all that we have left to learn about this complex cuisine. The small towns within each region all have their own funky, peculiar pastas that have remained mostly unknown. That is, until the Pasta Grannies came around.