Understanding Ingredients – Pasta

Dried pasta or fresh pasta? Here’s how to recognize good quality

Pasta is one of the simplest foods in the world: flour, water, sometimes eggs. Yet, there is a huge difference between a sticky, overcooked spaghetti and a firm pasta that beautifully absorbs sauce. Half the secret lies in cooking, while the other half is determined at the store shelf. In this section, we will explore the differences between dried and fresh pasta, how to recognize quality on the packaging, and how to cook it like the Italians do.

Dried pasta and fresh pasta, two different worlds

• Dried pasta (pasta secca): made from durum wheat semolina and water, without eggs. In Italy, store-bought dried pasta can only be made from durum wheat. It retains its shape after cooking, remains pleasantly chewy, and holds up well to bold, oily, or tomato-based sauces. It can last for months.
• Fresh egg pasta (pasta fresca all’uovo): typically made from 00 flour and eggs, often with a bit of semolina. It is softer, silkier, and cooks in 2–4 minutes. It is primarily the foundation of Northern Italian cuisine, where it is served with buttery, creamy sauces and ragù.
• Hungarian egg pasta: stands between the two. Made from wheat flour and eggs, but sold dried. We will discuss this in detail in part 4 of this series.

Neither is better than the other. They serve different purposes: dried spaghetti is needed for carbonara, while fresh egg pasta is perfect for ragù tagliatelle.

How to recognize quality dried pasta

1. Check the ingredients. A good Italian dried pasta has a short ingredient list: durum wheat semolina (semola di grano duro) and water. If it only says “wheat flour,” it is made from common wheat, which cooks softer and falls apart more easily.

2. Look at the surface. Most packages have a window, take advantage of it. The bronze-drawn (trafilata al bronzo) pasta has a rough, matte surface, slightly dull, as if it were dusty. The teflon-drawn pasta is smooth, shiny, and a brighter yellow. The rough surface holds sauce in its tiny pores, so the sauce does not slide off the plate with bronze-drawn pasta.

3. Look for the slow drying indication. Artisan pasta factories dry pasta at low temperatures, below 50 °C, for 1–3 days. In industrial production, it is done at high heat in a few hours. Slowly dried pasta is tastier, retains the aroma of wheat better, and holds its shape better during cooking. If the package says “essiccazione lenta” or “slow drying,” that’s a good sign.

4. Take a glance at the nutritional information. A higher protein content means a stronger structure, so the pasta won’t overcook. Generally, around 13 g of protein per 100 g or more indicates good quality durum pasta.

5. Price often speaks volumes. The production of bronze-drawn, slowly dried pasta is more expensive, and this is reflected in the price. You don’t always have to buy the most expensive, but even with an everyday pasta, you can feel the difference with a medium-priced, good pasta.

Cooking the Italian way

• Lots of water: about 1 liter of water for 100 g of pasta. In a small pot, the pasta sticks together, and the water takes longer to boil again.
• Salt generously: about 10 g of salt per liter, but only when the water is boiling. The water should be as salty as a lightly salted soup. The pasta only absorbs salt from the inside here; you can’t add it later.
• Don’t add oil to the water. Oil sticks to the surface of the pasta, and then the sauce won’t stick either. Stirring for the first two minutes prevents sticking.
• Taste earlier: start tasting 1–2 minutes before the time indicated on the package. The pasta is done when the center still resists your bite. This is al dente.
• Save some cooking water: before draining, scoop out a cupful. The starchy pasta water is the secret ingredient for the sauce: it creates a creamy emulsion with the fat, so the sauce coats the pasta smoothly.
• Finish in the pan: add the pasta to the sauce, not the sauce to the pasta. A minute or two of cooking together with the pasta water allows the flavors to meld.
• Don’t rinse. Rinsing washes away the surface starch that would hold the sauce. The exception is for cold pasta salad.

Fresh pasta: what to pay attention to?

Store-bought fresh pasta is always a refrigerated item. Check the egg content (the more, the silkier), and the expiration date. Homemade fresh pasta lasts in the fridge for 1–2 days, but can be frozen for weeks, and you can cook it from frozen without thawing. Fresh pasta absorbs more sauce, so make it a bit looser.

If you want to make homemade pasta, the classic ratio is 100 g of flour to one egg. We discussed the mix of 00 flour and semolina in part 2 of our flour series.

Storage

Unopened dried pasta can be stored for a long time in a dry, cool place. After opening, place it in an airtight container to prevent moisture absorption and keep flour moths out. Due to its fat content, egg pasta loses its flavor more quickly, so it’s best to use it within a few months.

Cooked pasta without sauce is good in the fridge for 2–3 days if you toss it with a drop of oil to prevent sticking. Don’t throw away leftovers: they can be turned into pasta frittata, baked pasta, or stir-fried pasta.

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