Giada De Laurentiis' New Pasta Isn't A Typical Box Of Boring Shapes

Since 2016, Giada de Laurentiis has made her favorite Italian specialty ingredients available to foodies everywhere through her site Giadzy. The foodstuffs include pasta, candy, olive oil, meal kits, and spreads, all created by the best-known and most respected Italian food brands. And yet, there has been something missing from Giadzy all these years: a line of Italian food products developed by De Laurentiis herself, until now. At this year's Summer Fancy Food Show in New York City, she announced the debut of a new line of Giadzy pasta, which will be available on the website in July 2023.  

Giadzy pasta will be available in eight shapes that hail from different regions of Italy, and all selected by de Laurentiis herself. In a statement to Food & Wine, De Laurentiis explained, "With Giadzy Pasta, I wanted to shine a spotlight on some of my favorite lesser-known shapes to show people how wide the world of pasta really is — and how fun it can be." The shapes include flat squares with ruffled edges known as tacole, tube-shaped paccheri, and manfredi lunghi, which with their long, ruffled edges resemble lasagna noodles, except cut into narrow strands. 

When developing pasta for her Giadzy brand, Giada de Laurentiis and her team spent months working with pasta makers across Italy to develop the perfect ingredient blend and flavor. They went with a surprisingly simple combination of organic semolina flour mixed with pure spring water. All of the Giadzy Pastas are shaped using authentic molds and then air-dried — traditional steps that take more time than mass-produced pasta, but that De Laurentiis feels gives the pasta the perfect texture once cooked. 

De Laurentiis shared with Food & Wine that light and simple sauces are ideal for this pasta line, "so you can really appreciate the pasta as a star of the dish, rather than a supporting player." And as is also customary in Italy, the pasta shapes determine which type of sauce they should be paired with. One of the Giadzy Pastas is nodi marini, a short curly noodle that de Laurentiis likes to serve in a simple cacio e pepe recipe, or with a light and spicy Calabrian tomato sauce. And a meaty amatriciana sauce will cling beautifully to the long, ruffled strands of manfredo lunghi.

The new pasta line will be available on Giadzy.com starting in July 2023, available in 1.1-pound packages priced at $10.50 each.