Where to Buy Bucatini Right Now

Sure, there’s a lot of “NEWS” flying around the last couple of weeks, but by far the most important has been the revelation that we are living in truly troubling and unprecedented times, amid a harrowing, daunting problem—a shortage of bucatini.

As writer Rachel Handler spent an impressive amount of time uncovering for GrubStreet, those long and elegant noodles, with a hole in the middle that sop up sauce so dutifully, have been in short supply during pandemic-afflicted 2020, although not for the reasons one might expect. (Handler’s A Beautiful Mind-level investigation behind the shortage includes everything from food safety issues related to people using the hollow noodles as straws to the FDA marking the inadequate vitamin content of enriched flours.) Oh yeah, and there’s the fact that we’ve all been sitting at home for ten months having to find new things to cook every night, and obviously, pasta is a lazy and delicious choice.

So no, we haven’t been imagining it—as that very good and surprisingly interesting story confirms, many grocery store buc’ shelves are indeed buc'-less and bare. We are left to pivot to boring spaghetti, pedestrian penne, or maybe those wild ‘n’ crazy corkscrews known as fusilli. But they just aren’t the same.

While some might have seen this shortage as an insurmountable blow, others—like your brave MUNCHIES staff—have been looking for remedies. We have positively scoured the internet and done the hunting for you. Here’s where to get your beloved bucatini, from Etsy to Eataly.

Cheap as can be, classic, and ready for action in your pesto or marinara.

Divella Bucatini Pasta, $1.95 for 500 grams/17.6 ounces at Yummy Bazaar.

If beloved Manhattan fine foods purveyor Murray’s Cheese—home of our resident cheese expert—believes in this bucatini, it’s probably the best, and we’re sure the higher price tag is justified. After all, there are lots of Italian words on the package, so it must be authentic.

Rustichella Pasta Bucatini, $12 for 1.1 pound at Murray’s Cheese.

We fancy this is ‘gift bucatini’ since it comes in an attractive vintage-looking package with a ribbon and everything.

Benedetto Cavaliari Bucatini, $7.99 for 500 grams/17.6 ounces at iGourmet.

Etsy isn’t just home to really weird Beyoncé merch and wonky hand-woven wall hangings—it’s also a marketplace for homemade pastas. Making and selling bucatini on Etsy is mutual aid.

Homemade Fresh Bucatini, $15.00 for 3 lbs. from Etsy seller CristosArtisanalFood.

Italian pasta company Rummo was founded in 1846, and on its website, current pasta patriarch Cosimo Rummo says, “I drew my first breath under the roof of my family’s pasta factory in Benevento, in the heart of the Italian region known for the world’s finest pasta. My life’s mission has always been clear: to make ours the best.” We live for that level of drama, and also this bucatini is only $2.99 a pound.

Rummo bucatini, $2.99 at Pinocchio’s Pantry.

If you need a big old bag of buc’, Eataly is selling this hefty 35-ounce package from Afeltra. And if you live in NYC or LA, you can have it delivered instead of waiting for the mail.

Afeltra bucatini, $10.90 for 35.3 oz. at Eataly.

Yet another incredible Etsy find: This seller making fresh pastas with duck eggs. It’s pretty expensive, but this is the exact sort of thing you can use to plan a Valentine’s Day dinner where your date is guaranteed to be impressed. This pasta HAS [claps] DUCK [claps] EGGS [claps] IN IT. (Here’s our favorite Bolognese sauce recipe, just in case you need it.)

Fresh Duck Egg Bucatini, $18 for 1 lb. from Etsy seller Pastaheartnsoul.

Don’t fear the bucatini shortage, or the reaper for that matter. Run along and cook some pasta.

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