When I teach people how to make fresh pasta, using eggs and soft flour, I often get the comment “fresh pasta is so wonderful, I’ll never eat that hard boxed pasta again!” But fresh pasta is only one note in the symphony of Italian cuisine. Pastasciutta, that dried, boxed, semolina-and-water pasta from southern Italy, plays an important part at the Italian table and is in no way second fiddle to egg-based pasta from the north.
The main starch of the regions in southern Italy has for centuries been pastasciutta, and only in the last 50 years has it become a mainstay of the diet on throughout the Italian peninsula, eaten everywhere on a daily basis. However, all dried pasta is not created equal.
There are many different kinds of pasta in Italy and it has become an industrial product over the last 60 years, like everything else. The industrially made pasta can be of good quality or poor quality and encompasses everything from Ronzoni and Muellers to Barilla and DeCecco; and then there is artisan pasta made on a small scale using traditional methods. This artisan pasta differs from industrially produced pasta in two main ways: the dies that are used to cut the pasta (bronze instead of Teflon-coated) and the drying times (very slow, sometimes over days). The result is pasta that holds onto the sauce and is chewy and flavorful, unlike anything you get from a packet of Barilla or DeCecco. No longer just a bland vehicle for sauce, it stands on its own.
One of the most fascinating things I had the opportunity to do last year in Italy was to visit some artisan pasta makers in Gragnano, a town in the province of Naples. I’ve long been interested in making pasta and studying its history, so when Slow Food friends on the Sorrento coast offered to take me on a tour of some of the artisan pasta factories in the area, I jumped at the chance.
Gragnano, along with neighboring town Torre Annuziata, has been a pasta-making center since the 1800’s. It was designed with this in mind, on the banks of a river lined with mills for grinding durum wheat into semolina flour. The main street lies perpendicular to the Sorrento coast so as to take advantage of the constant sea breezes that were used to dry the strands of pasta. There are many old photos from the early 20th century showing racks and racks of long spaghetti lining the streets and balconies, drying in the open air.
It’s a more hygienic operation these days with the pasta being made and dried indoors.
As I mentioned, there are two important ways that of making pasta in Gragnano that sets it apart from industrially produced pasta. Historically, the dies to extrude pasta were always made with bronze, which has a rough surface, catching the pasta dough as it’s squeezed through the shapes and roughing up the surface of the pasta. This allows the pasta to adhere to the sauce better, which is important to an Italian. Industrial dies are coated with Teflon, which gives a slick and smooth surface to the pasta, allowing the sauce to slip right off.
The second important difference lies in the drying time. In the artisan method the pasta is dried in slow ovens for days and in the case of very large shapes like candele or shells for stuffing, up to a week or more. This lends a consistency to the pasta that makes it more toothsome and gives it a lovely chew. The industrial method dries the pasta faster, in hotter ovens in a matter of hours.
But the most fascinating thing I saw was the pasta made by hand, like this woman making fusilli rolled by hand on a long metal spoke. Truly beautiful to watch, I wish I'd had a video camera!
I urge you to seek these pastas out; they’re worth getting to know. Look for them, especially the Faella brand (more on that next post!) at www.gustiamo.com. The good folks there have lots of wonderful things from Italy! Buon Appetito!
Gina
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