8 best pasta subscription boxes: Fresh Italian food delivered to your door

Passo is a modern, rustic Italian restaurant in east London that prides itself on simple, seasonal cooking of Italian classics with a tremendous line in both pizza and pasta. Temporary closure during lockdown meant it expanded on its existing takeaway service to the extent that both its pizza and pasta Passo To Go kits are now available nationwide for next day delivery – excellent news. Choose your pasta and sauce from the online shop where current choices include big hitting Italian classics like a superbly spiced arrabbiata with slow cooked tomatoes, our favourite amatriciana – with its salty guanciale and a chilli, tomato and garlic sauce, a punchy puttanesca rich with anchovies or a luxurious fennel sausage ragu – cooked in-house by ex-Fifteen graduate Hasan Semay.  

Next, select your pasta shape from a choice of malloreddus (a ridged Sardinian pasta dough gnocchi), silky pappardelle, fat tubes of paccheri and more then cook it all up in under five minutes using the step by step instructions and online video tutorials (which you won’t need!) We found the pasta was expertly thin and cooks to a perfect al dente in just two minutes, ready to be added to the just-heated sauce. Cover the lot with the ready-to-scatter parmesan and olive oil that’s in your box and tuck in to restaurant-level pasta in the comfort of your own home. Why not add on a freshly made Bombay Sapphire negroni or blackberry bramble cocktail while you’re at it? Prices start at £7.50 for two people.   

Husband and wife duo James and Rebecca started Nonna Tonda after an apprenticeship at a Michelin-starred restaurant in Modena; they then tripped around Italy shopping, eating and cooking their way through the regions as research to start a fresh pasta restaurant back in London. The pandemic has meant that their lovely Marylebone restaurant closed: cue a pivot to deliveries. Now, Nonna Tonda pasta is made in their kitchen each morning and sent out to homes around London on a weekly basis (delivery day depends on your address) where you’ll receive a fresh pasta, sauce and fresh parmesan which can all be prepped and ready to eat in less than five minutes. The pasta is made the same day as the delivery, so we’re yet to find a fresher pasta, and please believe us that the portions are huge. We loved our trial delivery of fettuccine with Cornish sardines (caught the day before, naturally) with a Sicilian style agro-dolce sauce rich with fennel and tomato, then topped with pine nut pangrattato. The butternut and goats cheese ravioli with sage butter inspired by the cuisine of Bologna looks incredible too. All ingredients are either locally sourced, or imported from Italy and really make every dish sing. Each week there’s a different meat and vegetarian dish to choose from and Nonna Tonda are very accommodating to allergies and preferences. You can pause your subscription at any time, or pop your delivery in the freezer on the same day to eat at a later date.

Chefs Eduardo and Daniele (ex-Chiltern Firehouse and Galvin) formed La Nonna to showcase the much-loved Roman pasta of Daniele’s heritage in a modern, refreshed format to hungry Londoners. When the two sites closed during lockdown, La Nonna in Casa launched, a selection of easy DIY kits available across the UK allowing pasta lovers to feast on the traditional flavours and recipes of Daniele’s grandmother’s Roman kitchen – restaurant-style – in a matter of minutes.  

With four kits to choose from (carbonara, cacio e pepe, beef and pork ragu and creamy mushroom), ranging in price from £14 for two people. The fresh pasta is handmade daily using authentic Italian 00 flour for a delicate yet al dente texture, each box includes simple instructions written by Dani to help you create La Nonna’s delicious pasta at home. We fell hard for the creamy mushroom kit, which is easily the best mushroom pasta we’ve tried. It comes with a hefty dose of umami from finely sliced porcini, chanterelle, oyster and chestnut mushrooms, which doubles down with an earthily sweet truffle paste all silkily coating perfect egg tagliatelle and finished with a veritable shower of parmesan. The kits have been such a success that it’s had to take a break while it reopens its Bethnal Green restaurant. But these will be back and better than ever with a full online deli store later this month. We recommend you keep posted by following @lanonnaldn on Instagram.  

La Tua Pasta is a family run artisan pasta factory that supplies many of London’s best known restaurants with is award-winning filled and bronze cut pasta. Lockdown happened and La Tua Pasta decided to switch to a nationwide delivery service which has been such a hit that the online shop is set to become a permanent fixture. We’d point you towards one of the pasta provisions boxes which offer a selection of fresh pasta, sauces, antipasti and dessert for a range of occasions. The dinner party box will make you extremely popular with guests and the picnic box is good too. We tried a stunning gnocchi alla Sorrentina – fresh potato gnocchi filled with the sweetest Vesuvian tomatoes and mozzarella and finished with an artisan tomato sauce. The summer truffle and burrata trofie pasta salad – a world away from the mayonnaise heavy pasta salad you may have in mind –  of just cooked trofie which is cooled then mixed with a flavour bomb of truffled artichoke pesto and truffle infused burrata, is heaven. Throw in some bresaola antipasti and some fill-your-own cannoli for a date night dinner to remember.

We’re big fans of the Bancone restaurants in central London – the famous dish of silk handkerchiefs with walnut butter and confit yolk is insanely delicious – and the good news is that its wares are now available a bit further afield. The Bancone at home service launched in June in response to the problems the hospitality industry was – and is – experiencing. Comprised of much-loved pasta classics such as Cacio e pepe with bucatini or the sumptuous spicy pork and n’duja ragu with delightfully frilly mafalde that we tried, along with easy to follow recipe cards, all of this is packaged in reusable plastic pots and shredded cardboard which it’s taken pains to make as sustainable as possible.  

Pasta takes minutes to boil and heat the sauce then we paired with a dreamy burrata starter which came with easy-to-assemble trimmings of lemony kale with marinated beetroot and a vibrant chive oil. Puddings currently include a glorious coconut panna cotta with mango, passionfruit and a coconut cherry crisp but change seasonally. This truly is restaurant food, rather than merely a pasta kit, for that we highly recommend it for a special occasion, or just a night in spoiling yourselves. Portions are for two or four people, and prices start at £17. Delivery is within the M25 and surrounding areas and orders must be in by midday Tuesday to receive your delivery Friday.

Perhaps the original pasta delivery service, Pasta Evangelists continues to go from strength to strength with its nationwide subscriptions of fresh, homemade Italian pasta and sauces. It’s backed by food industry figures Giles Coren, William Sitwell and Prue Leith. Ingredients are sourced directly from Italy where possible, meaning you’ll enjoy dishes like crab and chilli ravioli with Amalfi lemon butter (a highlight for us), red pepper and Pecorino ravioli with thyme butter sauce, or wild mushroom and porcini triangolini with truffle butter. That’s a lot of different butters, but you’ll hear no complaints from us. For meat fans the Sardinian lamb ragu went down tremendously well, too. Each week’s choices includes several meaty choices, a seafood option, vegetarian, vegan, gluten free and a few specials – just choose your preferences and how many meals you’d like to receive then sit back and wait for next day delivery. All dishes can be knocked up in minutes and are foolproof to prepare. For maximum value, receive a weekly subscription and you’ll also be able to enjoy the themed weeks (it’s currently sea salt week, next is cheese), or simply order on a one-off basis. Pasta Evangelists is the only service we’ve found to offer single portions if you like, which is perfect for solo diners who are usually saddled with an unwanted double portion, and allows you to try even more of their gourmet dishes. In the past we’ve thought the portion sizes on the small side, but this seems to have been very much remedied. We remain ardent fans. Prices start at £11.60 for two, and £6.37 for one. 

Lina Stores is one of the oldest Italian delis in London, having been at its original Soho site since 1944 with shelves groaning under the weight of cured meats, speciality cheeses, antipasti and a roster of fresh pasta and sauces. Today it’s multiplied into two restaurants, delis and an online store that delivers nationwide – lucky us. Pasta fresh and dried is available to your door up and down the country. We highly recommend the fresh ‘nduja and scarmoza (smoked mozzarella) ravioli, which is just as good as it is at the restaurant. Simply finish it with a drizzle of your favourite olive oil and unhealthy amounts of parmesan for the Lina Stores experience.  

Veggie? No problem. The artichoke and truffle variety is equally scrumptious – Lina Stores really knows its trade. For those in London, the choices are vast as you can also take delivery of its fresh sauces to complement fresh pappardelle or casarecce. Our favourite is towards the homemade Umbrian Norcina, which is a creamy porcini and slow cooked sausage sauce that is just the ticket for cosy autumn dinners. For a real dose of comfort, Londoners – and only those for now, sorry – can go all in with a fresh pasta kit comprising three different pastas and all the trimmings to feed eight to 10 people for £32.

Knock Knock by Smith & Brock is a new service supplying artisan produce and premium groceries to doorsteps around the capital after Smith & Brock’s usual mode of delivering top quality ingredients to London’s best restaurants and hotels was somewhat scuppered by the pandemic. There are all sorts of goodies available, from incredible seafood to the best berries available and stunning Sunday roast ingredients, so it stands to reason that its pasta box is a real treat.  

Enjoy an Italian feast at home with chef ready ingredients in this whopper of a box which includes Rummo bronze linguine and penne from the best Italian producer, DOP Ligurian pesto, delightfully peppery Tuscan extra virgin oil, an incredible buffalo mozzarella, a big wodge of top notch parmesan, famed Datterini tomatoes and juicy passata, umami-rich tapenade, a heady bunch of basil, and plenty of Maldon salt to cook it all up with. You’ll be transported to a sun drenched Italian piazza in no time at all. This is a tremendous value box with beautiful ingredients that can’t fail to shine, whatever you dream up.