Pasta brands and producers

Pasta brands and producers are the companies that make and sell pasta under their own names, from large industrial pasta factories to small artisan workshops. Whatever the brand, in Italy the same law applies to all: dry pasta sold as «pasta di semola di grano duro» may contain only durum wheat semolina and water, and egg pasta needs at least four whole eggs (200 g) per kilogram of semolina.

Most large Italian producers are old family firms. Garofalo traces its origins to 1789 in Gragnano, Agnesi to 1824, Rummo to 1846, Barilla to 1877, Voiello to 1879, De Cecco to 1886, Divella to 1890 and Pasta Zara to 1898; Felicetti, La Molisana and Fini date from the early 20th century, and Giovanni Rana, known for fresh filled pasta, from 1962. Some belong to larger groups: Voiello is part of Barilla, Agnesi of Colussi, and Garofalo has been majority-owned by Ebro Foods since 2014. Their factories are spread across Emilia-Romagna, Abruzzo, Campania, Apulia, Molise, Veneto and Trentino.

The ranges follow the main kinds of pasta. The core is dry durum wheat pasta in dozens of shapes, from spaghetti and penne to tiny pastina for soup. Then come egg pasta such as tagliatelle, pappardelle and lasagne sheets, chilled fresh pasta and filled pasta, wholegrain lines from wholemeal durum semolina, and gluten-free pasta made from maize and rice. Many brands sell bronze-drawn lines: dough pushed through bronze dies gets a rough surface that holds sauce better. Others stress slow drying or 100 % Italian wheat.

To choose, read the label rather than the logo. The ingredient list shows whether the pasta is pure durum semolina, how much egg it contains and, often, where the wheat was grown. Protein (usually about 12–14 g per 100 g of dry pasta), the type of die and the cooking time say more about texture than the name on the pack.

This page is an overview: it does not rate or recommend producers.