Where Does Olive Garden's Pasta Come From?

You're probably not surprised to hear this, but not everything at Olive Garden is made fresh. According to social media posts from people who claim to be Olive Garden employees, some items — like the restaurant's produce — are actually fresh, but there's a lot more that's frozen. Soups are made in-house, then bagged and frozen. Desserts come frozen and are thawed. Filled pastas come frozen. Sauces are made fresh every day. But what about the pasta? Does Olive Garden make its own pasta, or does it come from a third party?

The chain itself — as well as Darden, the restaurant group that owns Olive Garden — hasn't commented on the matter. But online speculation, including information from former and current employees, seems to indicate that a lot of Olive Garden's pasta comes from the Barilla and Zerega brand (which usually isn't found on store shelves). And, yes, that's the same Barilla brand you'll find on the pasta aisle at almost any grocery store. So if this speculation is true, Olive Garden's pasta is dried, not made fresh, and some of it comes from the same brand you can buy on your own.

"Our spaghetti is from Zerega and so are a few others like our fettuccine, ziti, shells, tubetti," wrote a Reddit poster on r/OliveGarden who's presumably an employee. "Our rigatoni and our angel hair (vermicelli) is from Barilla." On a separate thread, other commenters also claim the rigatoni comes from Barilla and seem to indicate that this might be a more recent change from another brand.

As mentioned, Barilla is sold at grocery stores all across the United States. The company, which is still family-owned to this day, was founded in 1877 when Pietro Barilla opened a bread and pasta shop in Parma, Italy. The company is now run by Guido, Luca, and Paolo Barilla and sells a wide range of pasta and sauces. On the other hand, Zerega operates more as a food service company, providing products directly to restaurants. Founded in 1848 by French immigrant Antoine Zerega, the company says on its website that makes more pasta shapes and sizes — 300 varieties, to be exact — than any other maker and has the capacity to make more than 800 million pounds of dry pasta each year.

So now that you know where it appears that Olive Garden's pasta likely comes from, and that it comes dried, you can certainly make some of the restaurant chain's famous dishes on your own. The "Tour of Italy" is one of Olive Garden's more famous menu items. This dish is a shareable plate that includes three Olive Garden classics: Chicken Parmigiana, Lasagna Classico, and Fettuccine Alfredo. If you want to try these at home, we'll get you started with a little direction on how to make Olive Garden's Alfredo sauce. And, because we're feeling generous, as an added bonus, here's a copycat recipe for Olive Garden's salad dressing.

Many large-scale chains aren't making fresh pasta, so it's really not a surprise that Olive Garden doesn't. So the next time you're at the store, grab some Barilla and make a little Olive Garden magic in your own kitchen.