Atlante collaborates with major UK retailer, Sainsburys, and Italy’s oldest filled pasta producer, to bring three delicious new products to market
Authentic and delicious fresh filled Italian pasta is the perfect comfort food for those dreaming of sunnier climes as autumn approaches. Quick and simple to prepare, Sainsbury’s Taste The Difference filled pasta range now includes three new skus – Tomato & Burrata Girasoli, Carbonara Girasoli, and limited edition Spicy Sausage Maltagliati.
Brits’ penchant for pasta looks set to keep growing, fuelled by great products and affordable prices, and in the wake of US actor Stanley Tucci’s hit TV series Searching for Italy, in which he explores the cuisines of the country’s varied regions.
“Atlante prides itself on sourcing the best Italian products for export markets, and our pool of pasta suppliers is 100% Italian. We worked with Sainsbury’s, from brief to basket, to develop new recipes that would keep consumers’ tastebuds tingling,” said Alessandra Gentili, UK Business Unit Manager.
Lasting partnerships with pasta producers and retailers
Atlante’s team members are specialists in own label projects because we manage the production cycle of each food product with care and attention to detail. We focus on satisfying specific requirements to meet shared quality standards. We do not represent producers and, being totally independent, use our expertise to identify the producers best suited to meet a customer’s standards, requirements and expectations.
“Having partnered with Sainsbury’s on numerous other lines over the past decade, we were delighted that the supermarket trusted us to come up with something new, exciting and tasty again,” said Alessandra.
“Fresh pasta is loved for its superior taste and texture, so we work with Italy’s oldest filled pasta producer to create incredible recipes for Sainbury’s Taste The Difference filled pasta range. The pasta is made in northern Italy by our specialist producer, who has been making pasta since 1882.”
A quick Italian dish, to become a new weeknight favourite
Launching in stores from 25 September 2024, each 250g pack of fresh filled pasta serves two people and is cooked from chilled on the hob in four minutes. They are delicious served tossed in melted butter or drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and topped with a sprinkle of parmesan or pecorino cheese – perfect for a speedy midweek meal, or as a delicious weekend indulgence.
Tomato & Burrata Girasoli
‘Girasoli’ is Italian for ‘sunflower’, referring to the shape of this beautiful pasta. Traditionally, the shapes are formed with a mould similar to a cookie cutter.
Sainsbury’s Taste The Difference Tomato & Burrata Girasoli sees the free range egg pasta filled with creamy Italian burrata and roasted tomatoes.
Spicy Sausage Maltagliati
Sainsbury’s Taste The Difference limited edition recipe, Spicy Sausage Maltagliati, has a mild spice hit. The free range egg pasta is filled with slow-cooked pork ragu, roasted tomatoes, mozzarella and chilli. Meaning ‘poorly cut’ in Italian, maltagliati were a way of recycling pasta scraps creatively. However, the pasta has become so beloved that mass-produced versions now exist, with pieces of pasta cut into relatively neat diamond shapes.
Carbonara Girasoli
Another sunflower shaped iteration, Sainsbury’s Taste The Difference Carbonara Girasoli sees the free range egg pasta filled with a pecorino Romano PDO cheese sauce and smoky pancetta.
Pecorino v parmesan?
One of Italy's oldest cheeses made with sheep's milk, pecorino romano is hard, salty and ideal for grating. PDO means Protected Designation of Origin Certificate. It’s the sheep’s milk that gives pecorino Romano a more grassy and earthy flavour than parmesan, which is a similar ancient Italian hard cheese but produced from cow's milk.
A final word about our producers
All Atlante partner producers are vetted and onboarded according to strict sustainable, ethical, technical, quality and safety parameters. The key criteria are that production sites are BRC certified, SMETA audited and work to SEDEX standards. Our producers demonstrate reliability, capacity and experience with large retail customers (preferably international). All the pasta producers we work with have been manufacturing pasta for decades.
Find out how Atlante can help you bring a great range of authentic products to the UK here.
