The America's Cup starts with a plate of Pasta Garofalo The Gragnano pasta maker meets Luna Rossa ahead of the 38th America's Cup, bringing sailing from the Gulf of Naples straight to Italian tables

Even before the sails in the Gulf, the teams in the harbours and the regattas that in 2027 will bring the America's Cup to Italy for the first time, in Naples the build-up to the competition begins in a decidedly more familiar place: the table. Pasta Garofalo has chosen Luna Rossa, the Italian challenger in the 38th America's Cup, for a new partnership that brings together two apparently very different worlds — pasta and sailing — finding common ground around an element that represents a kind of ultimate test for both: water.

The concept chosen to tell the story of the collaboration, "It's the water that tells us who we are," starts from exactly this point. For Luna Rossa, the sea is the place where months of design, technology and preparation are finally put to the test; for Garofalo, something similar happens the moment pasta goes into the pot and the texture, resilience and quality of the semolina cease to be abstract characteristics and become something you can actually taste.

From late September, Garofalo Spaghetti, Penne and Fusilli will feature special packaging dedicated to Luna Rossa, with the logos of both brands side by side. The partnership will be celebrated on 24 September in Naples, at the Circolo del Remo e della Vela Italia, the yacht club that Luna Rossa will represent in its seventh challenge for the Cup. It also offers a small preview of what will happen in 2027, when the Gulf will become the racing arena for the 38th America's Cup and the Italian team will compete for the first time in its home waters.

It is a parallel that works above all because it begins in Gragnano, where Garofalo has been producing pasta since 1789 and where the relationship between water, wheat and craftsmanship has over the centuries built a precise productive identity. From the selection of durum wheat semolina to bronze die extrusion and through to the monitoring of each stage of production, the pasta is treated as the result of a series of minute decisions that must all work in harmony. Not so different, at least in method, from what happens aboard a racing yacht, where every component and every manoeuvre ultimately bears on the final performance.