28 Pastai

The people behind it

Today 28 Pastai is led by Elena Elefante, the company’s managing director. In the September 2026 press release on its collaboration with Alain Ducasse’s restaurant in Naples, she sets out the company’s approach: “Our mission is to put craftsmanship at the service of contemporary cooking”, creating shapes that answer precise culinary needs “without ever losing the link with the tradition of Gragnano”.

The story of the place begins much earlier. The building that houses the pasta maker, overlooking the Valle dei Mulini, was the Molino e Pastificio Emidio Di Nola in 1934. Emidio was the third generation of a family of pasta makers: his grandfather Antonio kneaded maccheroni by hand, Raffaele opened the first “Di Nola” pasta factory, and Emidio, having set up on his own, bought the works in 1934, when it was still the Pastificio Parlato. The old sign still stands at the top of the building.

The website also tells a more personal story tied to the place: a boy named after Emidio Di Nola, the son of an employee of the pasta factory, ran between the drying racks and used zitoni as straws to blow soap bubbles, dreaming of making “the best pasta in the world”. Fifty years later that dream brought pasta making back to the same spot: Gambero Rosso describes 28 Pastai as a young business founded in 2019 in the Valle dei Mulini.

Sources: 28 Pastai — Per Alain Ducasse Napoli un nuovo formato di pasta di Gragnano creato ad hoc da 28 Pastai (23 settembre 2026) · Chi siamo - 28 pastai · Gambero Rosso — 28 Pastai, Penne zite lisce Pasta di Gragnano Igp 2026

What they make

28 Pastai is a small artisan pasta maker producing Pasta di Gragnano PGI by traditional methods: bronze dies and slow drying at low temperature. The range is divided into short and long pasta, sold in single packs and in mix-and-match boxes, through the online shop and the retailers listed on the company website.

Penne zite lisce are the shape Gambero Rosso examined in 2026: for the magazine they are “perhaps the most beautiful penne of the contest”, long and even, with a tapered body and a porous, light amber surface. They keep their shape after cooking, and the review suggests draining them a minute later than the time on the label. On the nose and palate they recall fresh semolina, with a taste described as sweet, balanced and clean.

The pasta maker also works with restaurants. In 2026, together with executive chef Alessandro Lucassino of Il Ristorante Alain Ducasse Napoli, on the ninth floor of the Romeo Napoli, it developed the Casareccia Lunga, a new shape designed for Scarpariello: its form, thickness, behaviour in cooking and ability to hold the sauce were worked out together with the recipe. In the same year 28 Pastai published a calendar of twelve chefs’ recipes and took its pasta to Pitti Taste in Florence.

Sources: Perchè sceglierci - 28 pastai · Gambero Rosso — 28 Pastai, Penne zite lisce Pasta di Gragnano Igp 2026 · 28 Pastai — Per Alain Ducasse Napoli un nuovo formato di pasta di Gragnano creato ad hoc da 28 Pastai (23 settembre 2026) · Notizie - 28 pastai

Ingredients and territory

The pasta starts from a blend of five Italian durum wheats grown in the Frentane hills, a combination the company describes as exclusive and patented. Milling gives a semolina that in Gragnano is mixed with water from the local aquifer, as required by the Pasta di Gragnano PGI specification, which 28 Pastai lists among its certifications.

The supply chain is traced through a digital blockchain certification provided by the Italian company Authentico. Every pack carries a seal and a QR code: scanning it with a smartphone shows where the wheat comes from and the drying temperatures and times of the pasta in hand. The pasta maker presents it as the first pasta from Gragnano with a supply chain traced in this way.

The Bureau Veritas certification covers the absence of pesticides and glyphosate, understood as a “technical zero”, below the analytical quantification limit of 0.01 mg/kg for the active substances listed in the company specification. The plant is also certified to the BRC food safety standard, meets FDA rules for export to the United States and produces to the Halal standard. Packs are made of paper and bioplastic and are recyclable. Gambero Rosso, in its review of the penne zite lisce, also mentions the traced Italian durum wheat from the Frentane hills.

Sources: Perchè sceglierci - 28 pastai · Le nostre certificazioni - 28 pastai · Gambero Rosso — 28 Pastai, Penne zite lisce Pasta di Gragnano Igp 2026

Recognition

On 19 June 2026 Gambero Rosso published, in its “La classifica” column, the 12 best artisan smooth penne, chosen by a panel of five experts in a blind tasting. 28 Pastai’s penne zite lisce Pasta di Gragnano PGI came third, behind Pastificio Gentile and Gerardo di Nola: the top three places all went to Gragnano. The product page on the magazine’s website, “rated in 2026”, describes a long, elegant shape, “perhaps the most beautiful penne of the contest”, with a sweet, balanced and clean taste.

The review links the result to the raw material and to the place. It mentions the traced Italian durum wheat from the Frentane hills, certified free of pesticides and glyphosate, and presents 28 Pastai as a young Gragnano maccheroni business founded in 2019 in the Valle dei Mulini, where in the early nineteenth century 28 pasta factories worked with their mills, driven by the water and energy of the Forma spring.

The page also gives cooks a practical tip: the penne keep their shape and finish after cooking, and they are best drained a minute after the time shown on the label. Aroma and flavour recall fresh semolina and the surroundings in which the pasta is made, with only a faint citrus note in the raw pasta; the bite is described as pleasant.

Sources: Gambero Rosso — La classifica: le 12 migliori penne lisce artigianali (19 giugno 2026) · Gambero Rosso — 28 Pastai, Penne zite lisce Pasta di Gragnano Igp 2026

Going there

The pasta maker is at Via Nuova San Leone 3 in Gragnano, above the Valle dei Mulini: this is the production site given by the company, while its registered office is in Naples, on Via San Giacomo. The valley below the pasta factory is where, in the early nineteenth century, water from the Forma spring powered 28 mills and the 28 pasta factories that drew their semolina from them.

The 28 Pastai website does not publish public opening hours or a programme of factory visits: anyone wishing to see the pasta maker at close range should write or call first. Customer service answers Monday to Friday, from 9 am to 6 pm, on the freephone number and email address published on the contact page; journalists and editorial enquiries go to the press office, run by Food Confidential.

The pasta is sold through the online shop and the retailers listed on the website. On the website, the section on the stories of the 28 pasta makers of Gragnano tells, with faces, names and events, of the pasta makers who inspired the brand, between legend and memory: good reading before arriving in Gragnano. The old sign of the Molino e Pastificio Emidio Di Nola, still at the top of the building on Via Nuova San Leone, makes the pasta works easy to recognise for anyone passing through the Valle dei Mulini.

Sources: Chi siamo - 28 pastai · Contatti - 28 pastai · Perchè sceglierci - 28 pastai

Products and flavours

The region

Campania