🏭 De Cecco

De Cecco is an Italian pasta maker from Fara San Martino in Abruzzo, in the Majella mountains. Its history begins in 1831, when Nicola Antonio De Cecco started milling at the Fara San Martino mill. In 1886 the master pasta maker Filippo Giovanni De Cecco founded the pasta factory, and in 1889 he developed the first plant for artificial hot-air drying of pasta. He won gold medals at the exhibitions in Chicago (1893) and San Francisco (1894), and from 1904 De Cecco pasta was exported regularly to the United States. In 1943 retreating German troops occupied the Fara San Martino factory, stripped it and blew it up; in 1944 the third generation of the family restarted production with a small machine built from salvaged parts. The company is F.lli De Cecco di Filippo – Fara San Martino S.p.A.

The De Cecco method is described on the company website. The company selects durum wheat in Italy and abroad: Italian wheat for flavour, wheat from other countries for the quantity and quality of protein. It grinds the grain in its own mill next to the pasta factory into coarse-grained semolina, kneads it with cold Majella mountain water (below 15 °C), draws it through rough dies, which leave the pasta slightly rough and porous, and dries it slowly at low temperature, with certified drying times of 9 hours for short pasta, 18 for long pasta and up to 36 for long hollow shapes.

The core of the range is dry durum wheat pasta (Pasta di semola) in many shapes. The other pasta ranges are egg pasta (Pasta all'uovo), 7 Cereali, wholegrain (Pasta Integrale), organic (Pasta Bio), High Protein, gluten-free (Senza Glutine) and Paste Speciali, together with gnocchi (Gnocchi). The brand also sells sauces, oils, flours, rice and bakery products.