Ceppe are a fresh egg pasta originating from Civitella del Tronto, made by rolling small pieces of dough — prepared with flour, eggs and water — around a thin rod. Originally this was a polished wooden stick known as a ceppa, later replaced by knitting needles, umbrella ribs or even bicycle spokes, until a thick, hollow macaroni about ten centimetres long is formed. Among the more recent sources, the pasta is documented in the surveys of Rino Faranda on Teramo gastronomy, which identify it as a characteristic dish of the town and its mountainous and foothill areas. Local tradition conventionally links the origin of the ceppa to an episode attributed to the Bourbon period: a military cook stationed in the fortress of Civitella, lacking proper equipment for making pasta, is said to have carved a small wooden stick to shape the dough into hollow macaroni by hand. Although anecdotal and difficult to verify historically, the story accurately reflects the exclusively urban and civitellese origin of the pasta, also confirmed by direct testimonies collected in Sant’Eurosia and the surrounding area, where it is now widely prepared in domestic contexts.

The skill required to produce ceppe that are straight, intact and uniform is considerable, and the process is known to be long and physically demanding. According to the testimony of Anna Marchetti, producing one kilogram of pasta requires around four hours of continuous work by an experienced person, seated at the table without interruption. In the past, a wedding for three to four hundred guests — once the norm in the town — required approximately twenty kilograms of pasta, prepared at least ten days in advance by one or more women of the household.

An anthropologically significant aspect concerns the geography of the practice. Ceppe were originally a prerogative of the town of Civitella del Tronto itself and not of the surrounding countryside: until only a few generations ago, they were neither produced nor consumed in nearby rural areas. In the farming communities of Sant’Eurosia, Rocche, Santa Croce and Sant’Andrea, when eggs were scarce — as they were often reserved for barter — the reference pasta consisted instead of tagliolini or tagliatelle made only with flour and water, typically dressed with legumes. The transmission of ceppe to these hamlets took place through marriage, when women from Civitella who married into surrounding villages brought the practice into their new homes, and through direct learning from godmothers, aunts and sisters, following chains of kinship and social relationships that can still be clearly traced today. Lidia Tulini, for example, recalls having learned from her sister Elda, who in turn had acquired the technique from a woman from Civitella — her son’s godmother — a professional cook who, in the second half of the twentieth century, prepared ceppe for local restaurants and private clients. Living opposite each other, the Tulini sisters then consolidated the practice together: a clear example of how knowledge stabilises and is retransmitted within female networks of residential proximity.

Traditional sauces are varied but remain firmly rooted in the local context. The most widely attested version is served with mushrooms from the Laga mountains, alongside a variant with mixed-meat ragù and local pecorino (sheep’s milk cheese). However, older memory points to an even more ancient and strictly domestic chain of seasoning practices: before the introduction of minced-meat ragù and the widespread use of mushrooms, ceppe were dressed with pork — that is, with the fatty and preserved parts of pigs raised at home and cured in cellars. More recent variations documented in the restaurant circuit of Civitella include white wild boar sauce, porcini mushroom sauce, tomato and basil sauce, or the addition of pallottine alla teramana (small meatballs in the Teramo style).