Borella - Penne Traditional (500g)

Penne is built for a specific job. The hollow tube cut at a diagonal, with ridges running along its length and a pointed end that catches sauce in a way a straight cut does not - every element of the design exists to maximise the amount of sauce that ends up on the fork. It is a shape with a clear purpose, and it fulfils that purpose reliably.

Borella's Traditional Penne uses a softer wheat formulation that produces a pasta with a slightly more delicate, yielding texture than the hard wheat version. It cooks a touch more quickly and has a lighter bite that makes it particularly well-suited to cream-based, cheese-based, and oil-based sauces where a denser semolina pasta might feel like too much.

Founded in 1935 as Pastificio Bassanese in the Venetian countryside, Borella has been making pasta the same way for nearly a century - slow-drying at low temperatures to preserve the natural wheat character and the protein structure that gives the pasta its cooking resilience. The result holds its shape, cooks evenly, and doesn't go soft at the edges before the centre is done.

The ridges grip sauce on the outside; the open tube draws it in from within. A vodka sauce, a cream with guanciale, a simple butter and sage - all of these cling and enter the tube in a way that makes every bite complete. The traditional formulation also suits baked pasta particularly well, where a slightly softer texture means the pasta absorbs the sauce during baking without losing its structure in the oven.

This is everyday pasta done properly - made by a producer that has been refining this for generations.

Best for: Penne arrabbiata, alla vodka, cream and ham, butter and sage, and pasta bakes where a slightly softer texture works in the dish's favour.