Giada De Laurentiis' Favorite Brand Of Dried Pasta, Besides Her Own
Born in Rome, Italy, and raised in the U.S., Giada de Laurentiis could probably transform basic ingredients into flavorful culinary masterpieces with her eyes closed. The queen of "Everyday Italian" certainly knows a thing or two about perfecting pasta. That's one of the reasons she launched her own private-label pasta line in 2023. Crafted in the Italian region of Abruzzo, the dried noodles are made with only the finest of ingredients, including mountain spring water and locally grown, organic semolina, a type of flour.
When she's not making pasta from scratch, it's safe to say that Giadzy Pasta is the cookbook author's favorite type of pasta secca (that's dried pasta in Italian). However, if she doesn't have any on hand, then another one of her go-to brands for artisan pasta staples is Setaro.
On her website, Giadzy, the chef shared that Italian-made brands like Setaro provide the best balance between flavor and texture while giving ample variety. Setaro also happens to be one of the very few pasta companies carried on the Italian lifestyle brand's online market, so you know it has De Laurentiis' official seal of approval.
Setaro is one of Giada's favorite pasta-makers
Setaro is undoubtedly one of De Laurentiis' favorite pasta producers, and for good reason. The company has been churning out high-quality pasta for more than 80 years. Founded in 1939, the family-run brand was born in Torre Annunziata, a region in Southern Italy located just outside of Naples.
Setaro carries an array of uniquely shaped pasta products — a favorite of De Laurentiis' — from calamari-inspired tubes of calamarata to tripolini with its ruffled edges.
Just like Giadzy Pasta, Setaro's dried pasta is made from minimally processed semolina flour, which gives it "robust flavor — and a beautiful texture that's both pillowy and perfectly al dente at once" (per Giadzy). It's also air-dried in the Mediterranean breezes that blow in from the coast — "a practice that makes for a delightfully chewy finished product" (via Giadzy).
But, beyond all of Setaro's high-quality ingredients and hard-to-find shapes, De Laurentiis says the brand holds a special sentiment to her because it's located on the same winding road as her grandfather's former pasta factory — lending a whole new meaning to 'tastes like homemade.'
Giada's other favorite pasta picks
Setaro is just one of a handful of dried pasta brands featured on De Laurentiis' website. Others include Italian-made brands like Massimo Zero, Tartuflanghe, Zaccagni, and Ori di Langa. Most notably, Zaccagni makes its pasta in the same Italian region as De Laurentiis' line. It's also similarly prepared from minimally processed and organic whole wheat semolina flour combined with the same Majella range spring water.
In a Facebook video, De Laurentiis shared some of her other favorite Italian grocery picks. She explained that since she enjoys making pasta a lot, she likes "to change it up."
One way she switches up her pasta nights is with Rustichella d'Abruzzo, which she called a "really good brand." In particular, she's a fan of orecchiette, which means 'little ears' — a name that stems from its shape. She warned the noodles do tend to come out with more of a dumpling texture but noted, "They're perfect with sausage and broccoli rabe."