In Italy, Gragnano is a synonym for quality pasta. For more than a century, this mid-sized town set just back from the port of Castellammare in the foothills of the Monti Lattari has provided gourmets and chefs with what is widely recognized to be some of Italy’s best spaghetti, rigatoni, lasagna, penne, tagliatelle… and the list goes on.

Go to Gragnano expecting to see enormous pasta-making plants, however, and you will be disappointed – in a good way. None of the twenty or so producers of an artisanal foodstuff that was granted IGP ‘protected origin’ status in 2013 works on a major industrial scale, and many are surprisingly small, operating out of historic buildings right in the centre of town.