Pasta Pulse Alert: San Marzano tomato futures up 12.4%

Right, here we go again. Every time there's a frost in Campania, the prices go mental. Pull up the 5-year San Marzano chart there.

Displaying 5-year San Marzano price history. Current price EUR 2.47/kg represents a 3-year high. Previous peak was EUR 2.31/kg during the 2024 basil blight.

See that spike in 2024? That was the great basil blight. Cost me a fortune. And now this... Madonna.

Incoming alert: Barilla has announced a 3% price increase on all dried pasta formats effective May 1st.

THREE PERCENT? On ALL formats? Even the farfalle? Nobody even buys farfalle, Barilla, cop on!

Correction: Farfalle is excluded from the price increase due to insufficient demand to justify repricing.

Well thank God for that. Small mercies. What's the passata situation looking like for Sunday?

Current passata reserves: 47 jars. At current consumption rate (3.2 jars/week), you have approximately 14.7 weeks of supply.

Grand. That'll get us through to the summer harvest. Unless Nonna decides to make her famous seven-hour ragu again. That woman goes through passata like it's water.

EVOO price alert: Extra virgin olive oil dropped to EUR 8.42/L (-2.1%)

Finalmente! Some good news. The Puglia harvest must be coming in strong. @chartpasta compare with last year's October prices.

October 2025 EVOO: EUR 8.42/L. October 2024: EUR 9.87/L. Year-over-year decrease of 14.7%. Puglia production up 22% due to favorable growing conditions.

Magnifico. Tell Nonna we can go back to using the good oil for everyday cooking. She'll be thrilled. Or she'll complain that it's still too expensive. One of the two.