What is artisanal pasta?
The producers of artisanal pasta
choose quality over quantity by returning to earlier, more laborious
processes of manufacture. At first, the dies used to shape pasta were
made of wood, hardly an enduring material, and one that raised health
issues. Inventive humans, dedicated to pasta, eventually discovered
bronze dies, a major improvement since they could be cleaned and they
could be reused. With the introduction of bronze, manufacture was under
way.
Bronze was durable and made superior
pasta, but the rough bronze was difficult to clean. Never satisfied,
inventive humans continued to experiment. Once the the industrial revolution
began, machines could make smoother metal dies that extruded pasta more
rapidly than bronze, and were far easier to clean. More recently, Teflon
dies were introduced. These made the manufacturing process easier, but
created a very slick, smooth pasta, the one that most of us are familiar
with, even today. Aficionados were disappointed by the smoothness of
the pasta. While the pasta slid away from the smooth dies, it it also
also slid away from the sauce that covered it.Artisanal pasta makers have returned
to bronze which creates a rougher surface on the pasta, giving sauce
a surface to adhere to. The cleaning is still more laborious, adding
to the cost of manufacture.In the science of pasta, drying
is of extreme importance. To be dried properly, pasta needs alternating
heat and moisture. The hot winds and wet sea breezes in the area of
Naples provided that climate naturally, and made Naples the pasta center
of Italy. In a more stable air temperature, the outside of the pasta
would dry, while the inside stayed wet and prone to mildew or to bugs.
Ingenious industrialists, ever eager
to perfect a product solved the problem by drying pasta in two separate
rooms which mimic the natural air of Naples. Mass produced pasta is
generally dried in hours at a temperature of 185 degrees. Artisanal
pasta makers use the lower temperatures of 105 to 115 degrees which
requires almost two days to dry the pasta.
Treat yourself. Try a bag of artisanal
pasta. Make your best sauce to go with it. Mangia bene.
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