The Pasta di Gragnano is a centuries-old product, considered the quintessential representative of Italian culinary culture. Renowned abroad as well, pasta di Gragnano brings history, tradition, and flavor to the table.
Restaurateurs and food lovers know well that Pasta di Gragnano is a product that can create extraordinary dishes with just a few simple ingredients, and this is well known in Gragnano: durum wheat semolina and water form a dough that is skillfully worked and then dried, creating a product accessible to all that has made Gragnano famous worldwide as the city par excellence of high-quality pasta.
But who knows its history? Let's discover it together!
The pasta-making tradition of Gragnano has origins that date back even to Roman times. Back then, the waters of the Vernotico stream flowed toward the "Valley of Mills", grinding the wheat that was then used by the nearby cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum to make bread.
Due to the needs of the poorer classes for cheap food that would quickly provide satiety, a new production, that of dried pasta, was born, which allowed semolina to be stored for a long time. But the pasta di Gragnano, until then little known, gained success in the 16th-17th centuries, a period when, due to famine, it was essential to have food that would keep for a long time, be economical, and fill the stomach.
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The origins of the production of Pasta di Gragnano as we know it today date back to the 16th century. We are in the Kingdom of Naples, where the "Maccheronari" (or better pasta sellers) already dominated the local market thanks to the low cost of pasta, encouraged by the growing demand from the very numerous Campanian population. Various family-run pasta factories flourished around cities where there was a large presence of mills and water, such as, indeed, Gragnano.
In 1845 there was a turning point: Ferdinand II of Bourbon, during a lunch, granted the pasta makers of Gragnano the privilege of supplying the royal kitchens with long pasta. From that moment on, Gragnano was dubbed as "the City of Maccheroni"; 75% of the population of Gragnano worked in pasta-making, producing more than 1000 quintals of pasta per day. Pasta was hung to dry in the streets of Gragnano, and subsequent developments and constructions in the city were made to facilitate pasta production, making the streets windy and sunny. In short, Gragnano transformed into a large natural drying chamber, where the dominant elements in the streets were bamboo canes that served as supports for laying out the pasta. In 1885 the railway network reached Gragnano, allowing the products to be distributed throughout Italy.
Towards the end of the 1800s, there was a boom in pasta production and a huge increase in exports, directed mainly to countries most involved in Italian emigration, such as the United States, making traditional Pasta di Gragnano known abroad. Exports grew exponentially for about two decades, peaking at 709,000 quintals in 1913. About three-fifths of this pasta was produced in the province of Naples, particularly in Gragnano and Torre Annunziata.
The name Gragnano became established in the U.S.A, making Pasta di Gragnano a famous and much-appreciated product. Its success – due to high-quality raw materials and the centuries-old art of drying – was such that many American industries tried to emulate its success by creating fake brands to pass off their own products as Pasta di Gragnano.
The pasta industrialists of Gragnano between 1892 and 1913-14, before the outbreak of the Great War, made significant investments for the mechanization of processing, significantly increasing production. They were factories equipped with steam engines, electric light, and many employees. But this mechanization of production came at the expense of traditional pasta factories that still worked pasta manually, which decreased drastically.
In 1915, the outbreak of the First World War brought a crisis not only to the pasta industry of Gragnano, but also to that of the entire peninsula. Exports collapsed, creating a chain reaction; industries went into underproduction and the stocks of pasta factories plummeted.
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With fascism, the situation worsened further. On July 4, 1925, Benito Mussolini launched the Battle of Wheat, aimed at bridging the gap between wheat consumption and its production in Italian territory. The high demand for wheat, a consequence of population growth, forced reliance on foreign supplies. To ensure the self-sufficiency of Italian granaries, a customs duty was applied to imports, driving up the price of wheat.
In the early post-war period, large-sized pasta companies in central-northern Italy began to expand. The artisanal pasta factories in Campania that survived the previous crisis shrank significantly. Almost all closed in Torre Annunziata, while only the more established ones managed to stay afloat in Gragnano.
In the 1990s, there was the rise of Italian pasta in international markets, an unstoppable phenomenon still ongoing.
Today, Pasta di Gragnano is a certified I.G.P. product, a mark that guarantees protected geographical indication. For pasta to be certified I.G.P it must meet certain requirements, the first of which is production limited to the Municipality of Gragnano, using only local water and durum wheat semolina.
So here is the story of one of Italy’s most typical and appreciated products worldwide. How can you not love it? All that’s left is to prepare a good dish of pasta, choosing from the many available shapes. Take a look at the selection from Spaghetti and Mandolino and let yourself be tempted by this delicious dish!
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