Liguori

Liguori is a pasta factory in Gragnano, Campania, the town often called the home of dry pasta. Its history begins in 1795, when Gaetano Liguori obtained permission from the Gragnano town council to "make and sell macaroni" in his shop. His son Vincenzo turned the shop into a works with the first human-powered machines: bronze presses for the dies and gramole kneaders.

In the 19th century King Ferdinand II of the Two Sicilies granted the firm the privilege of supplying long pasta to the Quisisana palace in Castellammare di Stabia. Later Adelina Liguori ran the company, and under her the "Alba d'oro" brand was exported to America. After the 1980 Irpinia earthquake destroyed the old building on Via Roma, Gerardo Liguori reopened production in the industrial zone at Via dei Pastai 50. Today the company belongs to the Casillo family.

Liguori was a founding member of the consortium that protects Pasta di Gragnano PGI. According to its official site, the "Liguori method" combines durum wheat from southern Italy, slow kneading with spring water from the Lattari Mountains, rough bronze dies and certified slow drying at low temperature: 9 hours for short shapes and 18 hours for long ones. The grain supply chain is tracked on a blockchain, and the packs are made of fully recyclable paper.

The range is dry durum wheat pasta made from semolina: Le Classiche IGP, Le Speciali IGP, Le Speciali – I Nidi, Le Tradizionali IGP, Integrali BIO, Biodinamica IGP and Biologiche IGP. There are also gluten-free pasta, potato gnocchi, lasagne sheets and cannelloni for baking, and squid-ink spaghetti. Shapes include spaghetti, linguine, penne, rigatoni, fusilli and paccheri. Liguori pasta is sold in more than 70 countries.