Sunny & Luna
, the female-founded brand on a mission to bring Italian food into the 21st century, is expanding beyond pasta and gnocchi for the first time with the launch of a three-strong range of fresh Italian sauces:
- Aubergine & Salted Ricotta Tomato Sauce – a rich tomato sauce with aubergine and salted ricotta
- Sundried Tomato Pesto – a plant-based pesto made with sundried tomatoes
- Courgette & Pistachio Pesto – a fresh, creamy green pesto made with courgette, pistachio and basil, rich in vegetables.
Made in Veneto, Italy, the three sauces take their inspiration from classic Italian recipes, reimagined for modern mealtimes. Made with simple, recognisable ingredients and no preservatives, no added sugar or seed oils, they are designed to turn fresh pasta or gnocchi into a complete Italian meal in minutes.
The Aubergine & Salted Ricotta Tomato Sauce is suitable for vegetarians, while the Sundried Tomato Pesto is plant-based and suitable for vegans.
The launch marks the next stage in the evolution of the independently owned UK-based challenger brand, whose mission is to evolve Italian food for modern life by bringing together the taste, simplicity and pleasure of Italian cooking with better nutrition and everyday convenience.
Launching first in Sainsbury’s
Two sauces will initially launch into 300 Sainsbury’s stores nationwide from 16 September: Aubergine & Salted Ricotta Tomato Sauce and Sundried Tomato Pesto, both priced at an RRP of £3.00* and positioned alongside fresh pasta in the chilled fixture.
The wider three-product range is also planned to roll out on Ocado later in October, including the Courgette & Pistachio Pesto.
For the first time, shoppers will be able to pair Sunny & Luna’s fresh gnocchi and pasta with its own high-quality sauces, creating a complete fresh Italian meal built around simple ingredients, better nutrition and weeknight convenience.
From pasta challenger to broader Italian food brand
Sunny & Luna was founded in September 2022 by Milan-born entrepreneur and former fashion model Giulia Berretti, inspired by the Italian food she grew up with and a belief that it could evolve for the way people live and eat today.
During her years in fashion, Berretti saw how foods such as pasta and carbohydrates were often demonised. Later training as a nutrition coach reinforced her belief that better nutrition should not mean giving up the taste, simplicity and pleasure of Italian food.
That became the idea behind Sunny & Luna: keeping what Italian food gets right, while evolving familiar classics with more vegetables, simple ingredients and everyday ease.
The brand first applied that thinking to pasta and gnocchi. Its gnocchi is made with more than 50% vegetables and provides one of your five-a-day per portion, while its Lentil Tagliatelle is high in protein and fibre.
The move into sauces takes the same philosophy into a second category, while broadening the brand’s opportunity in a fresh pasta fixture still largely concentrated around supermarket own-label and a small number of established players.
Giulia Berretti, founder and CEO of Sunny & Luna, comments: “When we launched our pasta and gnocchi range, we wanted to prove that Italian food could be better for you without losing the reasons people love it. Convenience and quality have been treated as opposites for too long, and that is the gap Sunny & Luna was built to close.
“Pasta and gnocchi were our starting point; sauces are the natural next step, allowing us to offer the complete meal around the same principles of great ingredients, better nutrition and genuine convenience.”
The launch builds on a fast-moving four years for Sunny & Luna, which has grown from a kitchen table idea to a nationwide presence across more than 400 UK retail locations, with listings spanning Sainsbury’s, Whole Foods Market, Planet Organic and Ocado. Along the way, the range has grown to eight products and picked up recognition including Great Taste Awards, Nourish Gold, Nourish Innovation and Vegan Choice.
Alongside growth, Sunny & Luna is part of the Buy Women Built community and has consistently backed initiatives supporting female entrepreneurship, accessible healthy eating and better food choices for families.
