Olive Nation Blog

ARTISANAL PASTA PRODUCTION REQUIRES EXTRA CARE

Posted by John Rusnak in Corn Pasta & Pasta, Oct 27 2009

Anyone who has purchased pasta either online or from a specialty food store probably noticed a wide gap in pricing between pastas sold at those outlets as opposed to supermarket pasta. There is a good reason for this. For the most part pasta sold online or from a specialty store is probably artisanal pasta. What does that mean exactly? For starts this pasta is probably produced using bronze extruders as opposed to Teflon. So what is the big deal? Pasta extruded through bronze has a much rougher surface allowing sauces to cling to them. Also, manufacturers of artisanal pasta generally use the finest durum wheat available. Teflon produced pasta is generally very smooth so the sauce slides off easily. The cost of manufacturing pasta using bronze extruders is much higher since it is much more labor-intensive to clean the extruders and more attention must be paid to the entire process. Another important point is that artisanal pasta makers use a much slower drying process at temperatures of anywhere between 105 to 115 degrees requiring almost two days to completely dry the pasta. On the other hand mass produced pasta is generally dried rather quickly at 185 degrees. So treat yourself, buy some really good artisanal pasta and make an outstanding sauce to accompany. You and your guests will definitely note the difference.