Pasta

Pasta might just be the most recognizable Italian food in the world, and with good reason! It’s healthy and delicious; it can be light and delicate or rich and hearty; it’s readily available and easy to prepare—it’s everything you want in a dinner recipe! For Giada De Laurentiis, pasta has always been one of the great pleasures of the table.

Contrary to popular legend, pasta wasn’t brought to the country from China by Marco Polo. Cut and shaped pasta sheets in the Mediterranean region can be traced all the way back to the Ancient Romans and Greeks, whose laganon is the historic predecessor of the lasagne we love today. Made from an utterly simple dough of flour and water, pasta has long been a staple food for Italian people of all classes, beloved for its inexpensive simplicity and endless versatility.

Every Italian region has its own favorite shape—from teeny-tiny pastina to ultra-wide calamarata—and unique preparations that celebrate their local specialties from the earth and sea. From spaghetti pomodoro to pillowy-soft gnocchi with butter and sage, some of the most internationally beloved Italian dishes feature pasta as the star.

And while it’s a lot easier today to find good-quality pasta in many fun shapes here in the U.S. than it used to be, Italian-made pasta is still a cut above in terms of flavor, texture, and variety.  One of our favorite pasta-makers, Setaro, has been operating their family-run factory on a winding street in Torre Annunziata in Naples since 1939. It’s the same street, in fact, where Giada's grandfather once made his own pasta. The semolina flour they use is minimally processed, creating a more flavorful product than those commonly found in the U.S. The company air-dries its pasta in the cool, salt-tinged breezes that blow in through wild rosemary bushes from the Mediterranean coast, a practice that makes for a delightfully chewy finished product.

We’ve done the work to bring you the most traditional, hard-to-find pasta shapes—from old favorites like rigatoni to whimsical capricci and beyond—and gluten-free options, too!—from artisan pasta makers across Italy.