Giovanni Rana

Giovanni Rana is an Italian fresh pasta brand of Pastificio Rana, based in San Giovanni Lupatoto near Verona, in the Veneto region. Its founder, Giovanni Rana, was born on 15 October 1937 in Cologna Veneta and in 1950, at 13, joined his brothers in the family bakery in San Giovanni Lupatoto. In 1960 he began making tortellini and delivering them himself to the first client families, and on 28 March 1962 the Pastificio Rana officially opened.

To make filled pasta on an industrial scale, Giovanni designed new machines with the help of local engineers and mechanics; production grew from 15 kg of tortellini an hour to hundreds of kilos an hour. In the 1970s a larger plant was built in San Giovanni Lupatoto. His son Gian Luca, now chief executive, took the products to other European countries. The company later opened a fresh pasta and sauce plant in Chicago, then a second site there, and took over a plant in Moretta (province of Cuneo).

Filled pasta is the core of the range: Sfogliavelo, a thin sheet of pasta with a generous filling; Sfogliagrezza, made with a process patented by the company that gives a thick, rough dough to hold the sauce; Gioiaverde, with vegetable fillings; and Duetto, a two-colour range. According to the product page of the Sfogliavelo tortellini with meat, the pasta is made of soft wheat flour, 30% egg and durum wheat semolina. The fresh pasta range also includes lasagne sheets (Sfogliavelo, Sfogliagrezza and a spinach sheet) and recipes from Liguria and Apulia.