The Best Italian Pasta Is...

Italian pasta is repetition. All pasta sold in the UK and much of Europe is made in Italy from Italian wheat.

The best pasta is that made by Mama.

"All pasta sold in the UK and much of Europe is made in Italy from Italian wheat."

Being slightly picky, I have some pasta, bought at the local Lidl, made in Germany from Italian wheat. It tastes fine.

I was slightly disappointed, when opening the topic, not to see "Pici, in Siena, with a wild boar sauce"
or at least Spaghetti alla vongole.

Best pasta is what my husband makes at home, using Italian 00 flour.

The wheat used in decent pasta is Durum and where it's grown is less important than it's quality. While the good Italian brands often use Italian grown wheat, it's not a given. Rummo uses Australian wheat, De Cecco uses Italian and imported wheat, Barilla in the US uses American wheat. The requirements for using the 'Pasta di Gragnano IGP' label do not specify the origin of the wheat, just the grain's minimum characteristics.

A main fact I learned from my cooking class in Ravello is that bronze cut pasta is the best, since the slightly rough edges hold onto the sauce better. A decent American brand is De Cecco.

I fully agree with Mike, Italians have been importing Durum wheat from Ukraine since the middle ages. Merchants from Venice and Genoa conquered port cities in Crimea for this reason (and Sunk each other's ships).
If one wants to eat only Italian wheat y,ou must go bio https://sorgentenatura.it/p/spaghettoni-di-gragnano-semola-di-grano-duro-bio?id=85521&gclid=CjwKCAjw1f_pBRAEEiwApp0JKIQc-MaoiVRH6ZBe3zwFTT8aVK1g9J3aCvSVZxEvfB_K3qdP4pa_HxoCAPsQAvD_BwE

DeCecco is Ok. Barilla sucks. My favorite is Afeltra IGP from Gragnano, but it takes 16 minutes in boiling water to cook a dish of bucatini. Serious stuff for neapolitans with too much free time. Barilla is ready in 8 minutes.

The best pasta is that made by Mama.

Not in my household!! The best pasta here is made by my husband. (Who always tells people he taught himself to cook as a defense against his mamma’s horrible cooking !! 😳)

And TimW, I had the same expectations when opening the thread! I thought everyone would be presenting their case for their favorite sauce/shape combo!!

Tajarin al faro con vongele e flori de zucca e pistachio, Trattoria Degli Amici, Castellinaldo d’Alba
Fettuccine Ai Frutti de Mare, Pastificcio Defilippis in Torino
Ravioli del plin ripieni di gorgonzola liquido, pere Madernassa e miele, Io e Luna, Guarene
Bigoli alla padovana at Ristorante al Santo in Padova.

Io e Luna has to be one of the finest dining pleasures in 12 trips to Italy. Degli Amici is a small restaurant in a small town discovered by accident (thanks Google) and does big things in a small space. Young lady owns and runs it. Wow! Defilippis is an old deserving standby in Turin and never fails. Al Santo is a fair hotel restaurant but the Bigoli was more than expected.

I hope all know pasta is the shape, salt, flour, egg or water. College roommate with connection to a leading manufacture of pasta informed me years ago. Yes, pasta with texture or curls will pick up the sauces. I keep on trying different flours other than semolina or wheat flour, not the same!!! I am able to create da.. good fresh pasta and sauces to go with it. Do add salty and starchy pasta cooking water to most sauces. Especially when the garden is in full swing. It may be my Italian travels, grandmother or mother, great cooks in their day, that paved the way.

DeCecco is better than Barilla.
All others are not so ubiquitous in America, so I rarely bother.

Are you people all crazy ? Have you never seen the TV documentary (BBC) showing the Italians harvesting spaghetti from the spaghetti trees ??

Oh, Laura, I had forgotten about that BBC spoof. It was absolutely hilarious, narrated by a man with the right unctuous voice, with the right BBC accent, describing the age-old ritual of spaghetti gathering. Brilliant. Very sly, too.

I discovered DeCecco last year & it's my preferred brand. I never looked into it but I think it's an Italian company.

Our fave is Rustichella d’Abruzzo. Can’t get it everywhere so De Cecco is our seconda scelta.

We have been De Cecco fans for years. Our favorite Italian restaurant in Chicago served it.

I went down the wrong path with this question because my answer would not be a brand but a type: Trofie! Lovely!! Might get a chance to get some"fresh" at Whole Foods tomorrow.

In that case, it would depend on what the sauce is!

De Cecco is an Italian company based in Abruzzo.
Although it is the most widely available brand in America, it is not an American company.

It might have been American if Frank Sinatra wasn't so cheap. Numerous Italian headlines reported some years ago that Frank made a lowball offer of a million dollars for DeCecco in the 1960's - at a time when the owners felt it was worth 7 million.