Our Story: Three Generations of Italian Pasta Making
Every recipe we make today started in a small town in Italy, long before Durante’s ever had a storefront in Connecticut.
From Ruviano, Italy to Connecticut
Almost nobody has heard of Ruviano, and that is rather the point. It is a tiny rural village and municipality in the Province of Caserta, in Italy’s Campania region — farm country inland from Naples, in the shadow of the surrounding mountains. No famous piazza, no tour buses. Small plots of land, and the kind of home cooking that gets handed down at the table instead of written down in a book.
That is where Amedeo and Carmelina Durante grew up, and where every recipe we still make began. Amedeo immigrated to the United States in 1967 and spent years working in Italian import stores, learning the business from the inside while he saved toward something of his own.
Durante’s Market: Where It Began
In 1977, he opened Durante’s Market on Elizabeth Street in Derby, Connecticut. Carmelina joined him the following year, and together they built more than a grocery store. Durante’s Market became a gourmet shop, a coffee stop, and eventually the birthplace of a pasta business neither of them had planned on.
A Family Learns the Craft
With their two young sons, Lorenzo and Angelo, growing up alongside them in the store, Amedeo and Carmelina began making fine, handmade pasta right there on Elizabeth Street. What started as a way to serve their own customers better turned into the heart of the business. Angelo remembers being put down for naps on the flour bags as a toddler, and he was helping make pasta himself by the time he was four years old.
Opening Durante’s Pasta in West Haven
As demand grew, the family moved the business to West Haven, opening Durante’s Pasta on Fenwick Street in the spring of 1986. Angelo now runs the company his parents built, using the same old-world technique of rolling and pressing dough by hand to get an authentic bite in every piece. The pasta is still air-dried the traditional way, with no preservatives, just like his grandparents would have made it back in Italy.
The Tradition Continues
Durante’s makes about 1,000 pounds of pasta a week, but the scale has never changed the approach. Small batch. Family owned. Locally produced. What started with two people and a market in Derby has grown into a business that supplies restaurants, gourmet shops, and supermarkets across Connecticut, without ever changing what made it good in the first place. Angelo hopes the next generation will carry it forward, making pasta just the way Durante’s customers have always liked it.
Beyond the Pasta Shop
Angelo has grown Durante’s beyond the shop on Fenwick Street.
Cooking Demonstrations
Angelo still shows people how it’s done, hosting homemade pasta and cooking demonstrations the same way his parents once did.
Catering
From small family gatherings to large events across Connecticut, Durante’s brings the same handmade quality to every table it serves.
Farmers Markets
You’ll find Durante’s set up at local farmers markets across Connecticut, bringing the pasta shop straight to the neighborhood.
Our Mission
"To craft premium, authentic homemade Italian pasta and sauces using the finest local ingredients and traditional techniques, to fill bellies, warm hearts, and turn family meals into memorable experiences."