The next time you’re cooking up a plate of spaghetti al pomodoro, we’d encourage you to reach for a bag of authentic pasta di Gragnano IGP, dry pasta made exclusively in Gragnano, Campania near Napoli. So what makes this Italian dry pasta stand out, you ask? We sat down with the experts at Afeltra, a prize-winning historic pasta factory, to go behind the scenes and find out.

Located in the province of Napoli at the foot of the Lattari mountains, the town of Gragnano is perfectly suited for pasta production. Although there is evidence of pasta in this area of Campania dating back centuries, it wasn’t until the 18th century that Gragnano became a renowned hub for pasta production (until then, pasta was mostly a homemade affair).