About 3.3 million tons of pasta are produced every year in Italy. Excluding small artisanal pasta factories, there are more than 140 pasta factories in Italy. The regions in which there is a greater production of pasta at national level are Campania (in particular the cities and provinces of Naples and Salerno), Emilia Romagna (in particular the cities and provinces of Bologna and Parma), Lombardy, Puglia, Liguria, and Tuscany.
There are three kinds of pasta: pasta secca (dry pasta), pasta all’uovo (pasta with eggs) and pasta fresca (fresh pasta), and an extraordinary number of different shapes:
- long pastas with round section like vermicelli and spaghetti or with perforated section like bucatini and ziti, with rectangular or lens section like trenette and linguine, thick as wide as lasagna;
- pasta in nests like pappardelle or with reduced thickness such as capellini, tagliolini and fettuccine;
- short pasta, long such as rigatoni, fusilli, penne and garganelli, medium such as pipes, shells, thimbles and orecchiette, and small pasta or specific pasta for soups such as squares, stars and ditalini.
According to the type of surface, pastes are further divided into two categories: smooth, appreciated for their lightness or coarse, appreciated for its ability to retain sauces.
As part of the IICCI's initiative 'Italian Gourmet', the following brands are available in India: