Freshness takes on a different look in 2016, as the retail Drake’s Homestyle Pasta is rebranded as Parla™ Pasta — same quality, same freshness, with a new name and updated packaging. The colorful, purely Italian Parla Pasta packages are now available in the frozen sections of The Fresh Market, Publix and Harris Teeter grocery stores.

That commitment to quality breeds loyalty among consumers and inside Drake’s. Ingredients are hand-chopped by employees every day, some of whom have been with Drake’s for more than 20 years.

“We are truly a family business,” says Simone Drake, cofounder and vice president. “We founded our company in 1985 and our oldest daughter, Sarah, joined us in 1989. Our second daughter, Christina in 1992. Both of our children have experienced pasta every day of their lives. I am able to spend every single day with my husband and I cannot imagine a day that we are apart. We are truly living the American dream.”

The Parla freshness starts with the ingredients. Because Parla uses only all-natural ingredients and quick-freezes the pasta, Parla frozen pasta stays fresh longer and cooks to perfection.

Parla uses a unique manufacturing process that ensures the goodness stays in and the air stays out. When families open the package, they will see beautiful, premium and generously filled pasta without clumps or broken edges. There is no loss from seams as the product cooks in the water.

“We have uncompromising standards for producing the freshest, most flavorful, and clean-label pasta through artisan preparations and quality ingredients that meet strict requirements. We speak pasta,” says Rick Drake, co-founder and president of Drake’s Fresh Pasta Co.

Owners Rick and Simone Drake were given a pasta maker as a wedding gift more than 35 years ago and were so enthralled, they turned that passion into Drake’s Fresh Pasta Co., proudly based in High Point.

The entrepreneurial couple have made pasta a family business focused on quality.