A place where people consider pasta as white gold.

Known as "Città della Pasta" (the city of pasta), the coastal town of Gragnano rose to fame in the late 1700s with its "white gold," or pasta.

During its heyday, nearly 70% of Gragnano's population made pasta, with up to 100,000 kg produced daily. When King Ferdinand II of Naples visited the city in the mid-1800s, he was so impressed that he chose Gragnano's pasta factories as the official supplier for the palace during the summer at Quisisana, the former royal residence, located 5 km from Gragnano.

In the 19th century, Gragnano was one of the famous stops on the Grand Tour, a journey for wealthy Europeans. When European aristocrats wanted to prove they had completed part of the Grand Tour, they would often bring pasta with them to show that they had been to Gragnano.

Fresh pasta is a simple mixture of flour, water, and eggs, more common in the regions of Piedmont, Lombardy, and Veneto. The dough is rolled to form tagliatelles (long, thin, and flat rolled pasta) or tortellini (ring-shaped pasta filled with meat). Dry pasta, on the other hand, requires only two ingredients: water and flour made from durum wheat. The dough is made using traditional copper molds, resulting in dry pasta that absorbs more sauce. In this town, people prefer dry pasta.

The town of Gragnano, surrounded by mountains and the sea, has an ideal climate for naturally drying pasta. The buildings are spaced out to allow moist breezes to blow through several times a day. If you didn't see the wheat flour floating in the air, you probably wouldn't guess that this quiet town was once one of the region's largest pasta producers.

Giuseppe Di Martino, the creator of the pasta for Pastificio Di Martino, one of the three major pasta factories in Gragnano, said: "We are able to produce and dry the pasta every day thanks to our ability to predict the wind blowing through the village and into the valley."

In the past, pasta was dried on reeds. However, factories had to ensure the streets were clean, as they didn't want the pasta to be contaminated by dust. The method of drying pasta in Gragnano is an art, refined over generations and a closely guarded family secret. Because no preservatives or antibacterial agents existed at that time, preserving the pasta depended on slow drying.

According to Di Martino, Gragnano was industrially redesigned to become a "pasta town," as the factories exported large quantities of pasta to the United States.

In the early 1900s, Gragnano had nearly 120 pasta factories. However, the industrial boom replaced the traditional outdoor drying methods, reducing the number of factories to 42. The factories increased in size but not in number. While they exported pasta to other markets, mechanical tools replaced human labor, increasing unemployment. This led to many workers migrating to the United States in search of work.

When exports to the United States were banned during World War I, Italians in America produced dried pasta with the help of machinery. However, one thing they couldn't replicate was the flavor. The ingredients in Gragnano pasta help preserve the flavor even during the six-week shipping period to the United States.

Nunzia Riccio, a food technologist and quality control manager, explains: "The water used to make the pasta has lower mineral content than in other regions, which doesn't alter the flavor. The wheat only takes 3 hours to transport from Puglia to Gragnano, so the flour is fresh and doesn't have time to develop mold or toxins."

Gragnano's first symbol was a bundle of wheat, followed by a hand gripping stalks like spaghetti. According to Di Massa, this symbol represents the relationship between the earth and manual labor.

Nowadays, pasta is dried in enclosed production lines. However, the air blown into the engine is still the same as it used to dry the noodles hanging all over the streets.

As a way of paying homage to the city's heritage, Gragnano's pasta makers still cook and serve their wares right on the streets every September. This is known as the Festa della Pasta di Gragnano festival. First held after World War II, it served as a way to revive Gragnano's traditional pasta-making craft. The festival typically attracts around 100,000 visitors over two days, with tens of thousands of pasta dishes sold daily. Famous chefs demonstrate their cooking live in the town center, where pasta used to hang like curtains along the streets.

Nguyen Yen