Campania: Naples, the Amalfi Coast and the Pasta of the Sea
The Kingdom of Naples
For centuries, Naples was one of Europe's great cities — the capital of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, a thriving Mediterranean port and the birthplace of pizza. It is also the city where pasta and the tomato first met.
The tomato arrived in Europe from the Americas in the 16th century, but it took nearly two centuries before Neapolitans began eating it — initially regarded with suspicion as a poisonous ornamental plant. By the late 18th century, maccheroni vendors in the streets of Naples were serving pasta with tomato sauce to the city's working poor, and a culinary revolution was born.
Paccheri: The Great Tube
Paccheri is Naples at its most dramatic. These enormous open tubes — almost comically large — were traditionally made to smuggle garlic into Austria during a period when the Austrians had banned Neapolitan garlic imports. The story may be apocryphal, but it captures the Neapolitan spirit.
Paccheri are extraordinary vessels for seafood — stuffed with ricotta and topped with a rich tomato and prawn sauce, or simply tossed with clams and cherry tomatoes. The pasta's wide opening means every tube traps a pool of sauce inside.
Scialatielli: The Pasta of the Amalfi Coast
Scialatielli is a more recent invention — created in 1978 by chef Enrico Cosentino in Amalfi — but it has become so woven into the fabric of Campanian cooking that it feels ancient.
Short, flat ribbons with rough-cut edges, scialatielli are made with fior di latte (fresh milk), basil and sometimes a little cheese added to the dough, giving them a flavour distinct from any other pasta. They are traditionally paired with the seafood riches of the Amalfi Coast: mixed shellfish, sea urchin, and the tiny clams found among the rocks below the cliffs.
The name comes from the Neapolitan dialect: scialare means to enjoy, and tiella refers to a type of pan. It is, essentially, a pasta named after pleasure.
The Tomatoes of San Marzano
No discussion of Campanian pasta is complete without its tomatoes. Grown in the volcanic soil at the foot of Vesuvius, San Marzano tomatoes are protected by DOP status — their elongated shape, low acidity and intense sweetness make them the finest sauce tomatoes in the world.
When paired with the right pasta shape and a great olive oil, they need nothing else.
From the Amalfi Coast to the North West
When you serve scialatielli or paccheri in your restaurant, you're bringing a little of the Mediterranean's most dramatic coastline to your guests. We make ours with the same simplicity — semolina and water — letting the shape do the talking.