Gragnano PGI

Pasta di Gragnano PGI

Gragnano, a town nestled between the mountains and the sea, is unique place for its soil and climate conditions and for its traditional pasta-making process, unique in the world in terms of history and cultural value.

"Macaroni are genuine food - as genuine as the people of Gragnano"

The city has a deep-rooted devotion to the world of wheat, and the inhabitants of this area have always been skilled workers of this raw material.

The etymology of the name Gragnano honours this noble art; it derives from a “praedium graniium”, i.e. A farming estate where the Gens Grania, of Roman origin, dedicated themselves to the processing of wheat and the production of bread. Later on, this estate gave life to a whole town, called “Granianum” and detached from the ancient city of Stabiae.

Moving on through the centuries, the city never lost its ancient ties to the art of pasta making.
In fact, between 1266 and 1272, in order to increase the production of pasta, a concession was given to build some mills in a valley along a mule track linking Castellammare di Stabia with Amalfi, known as the Valle dei Mulini (“valley of mills”).

These mills (characterised by the presence of vertical rather than horizontal wheels, given the unsteady flow of the river) made use of the waters of the Vernotico stream, fed by the springs of La Forma, to support the production of pasta.

Over time, the small workshops became true industries and in the decade preceding the Unification of Italy, the economy of Gragnano was almost exclusively based on the hundred or so pasta factories that existed in which about a thousand quintals of macaroni were produced daily.

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a precious

Territory

"The macaroni street"

Before the advent of modern technology, pasta drying took place in the open air, benefiting from the warm sun and sea breeze.

Later, it was even decided to change the layout of Gragnano, modifying the city streets and the orientation of the buildings, to allow better drying in the open air, so that the pasta could enjoy the light and warmth of the sun at all times of day.

In fact, the architects redesigned the “Macaroni Street”, to prevent the buildings from obstructing the delicate phases of processing, and created real wind tunnels, to allow optimum air flow.

PGI Certifications

To protect the product, the Consortium for the Protection of Gragnano PGI Pasta, of which Pastificio Liguori is a founding member, was founded in 2003.

Today, in addition to being a product of excellence, Gragnano Pasta is also an important link with the past, bearing witness to an ancient heritage of great historical and cultural value.

This importance has been recognised with the awarding of the prestigious PGI Certification (the Italian initials for Protected Geographical Indication).

Pasta di Gragnano is the only durum wheat semolina pasta in the world to have obtained this certification that protects the consumer from counterfeiting and abuse, certifying very precise standards with regard to the chemical-physical and organoleptic characteristics of the product, also guaranteeing strict compliance with the production process and the link with the territory.