Italian food company unveils refreshed premium pasta line with Beckham kin serving as voice, face

Beloved pasta brand Barilla has refreshed its Al Bronzo line and scaled the catalog to include two new pasta types, Orecchiette and Fusilloni.

Barilla, the leading pasta brand in the U.S., according to Statista, relaunched the Al Bronzo line with celebrity influencer and food connoisseur Brooklyn Peltz Beckham, at the epicenter of tasty Italianate dishes curated around the bronze-cut macaroni.

"We’re very excited to be working with Brooklyn," Angie Cotter, U.S. Pasta Marketing Director at Barilla, told FOX Business. "He's always had a very strong connection to food and learned how to cook at a very young age from his dad."

HOW TO MAKE ‘THE GODFATHER’ SUNDAY SAUCE RECIPE

Soccer legend David Beckham drew from his passion for cooking at a tender age and marinated the craft into parenting his children, especially Brooklyn, who learned to cook opposite his father while living in Italy.

"He's passed on these traditions," Cotter said. "He's bringing this into the family recipes that he's now making with his wife."

The eldest Beckham child married actress and filmmaker Nicola Peltz, in a Palm Beach, Florida ceremony in 2022.

"We feel he's just a really good voice for our refreshed Al Bronzo line," Cotter said. "We’ll also be working with him to help educate on the art of scarpetta."

Scarpetta, an Italian gesture of capturing every last bit of sauce on the plate, typically done by wiping a dish clean with a slice of bread, is nearly impossible when combining a traditional Sunday gravy with Al Bronzo, according to Cotter.

"With the extraordinary grip of Al Bronzo pasta, it's not possible," Cotter said. "We call it ‘the pasta for sauce lovers.’"

SCIENTISTS CREATE WORLD'S THINNEST PASTA EVER

The texture of bronze-cut pasta holds the sauce well, ensuring an appetizing and balanced gravy-to-pasta ratio. Cotter recommends "24 oz of tomato sauce to 16 oz of dry pasta," though this depends on personal preference.

For pasta aficionados and carb-cravers who love extra sauce, whether it's marinara or alla vodka, the scarpetta technique is still possible using traditional bread-mopping.

"We’ve updated our packaging to reflect the gripping difference the texture makes when it comes to pasta, and we've also added some new sauce gripping shapes to the lineup that are very highly sought after," Cotter said.

In 2024, Barilla commissioned a global survey conducted by Nielsen reaching chefs and home cooks in the U.S., Italy, France and Germany, which determined that, among 1,600 surveyors, 40.1% of them pursue Orecchiette pasta, and 44.8% desire Fusilloni.

"It does bring a new level of experience to a pasta dish," Cotter said. "What it enables is a new sensorial experience within the meal itself."

GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE

Barilla maintains relationships with chefs in the U.S. and Italy who have provided a culinary seal of approval for Al Bronzo.

"Al Bronzo is made in Italy," Cotter said. "The reason why Italy is so important for us is that we have very deep roots that are still in Parma, so this nicely reflects that."

Over 148 years after its debut, Barilla remains committed to a cherished Italian way of pasta-making.

"Regardless of location, we're always maintaining that same level of commitment to quality," Cotter said. "Our priority is always providing the best pasta experience to consumers."