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1 Pasta di semola di grano duro secca
Dried Durum Wheat Semolina Pasta
Appears in
By Antonio Carluccio and Priscilla Carluccio
Published 1997
This is the basic dried pasta made from a flour-and-water mixture, using durum wheat semolina. The dough is forced through a die to make long pasta shapes, such as spaghetti, which are cut to length and then dried, packaged and sold. It keeps for a long time if stored correctly.
Dried pasta can be further broken down into three categories:
- Pastina or pasta corta minuta (very short pasta): this pasta is often used to make the tiny shapes used in broths and soups. Extra protein is sometimes added to the dough in the form of gluten to make pastina glutinata for use in soups for children.
- Pasta corta or pasta tagliata (short pasta): this is larger than the type used for broth and includes most of the familiar shaped pasta like farfalle and fusilli. It is usually hollow, so that it cooks more evenly and is dressed with a tomato sauce (most short pasta is eaten with just enough sauce to coat it - this is known as pasta asciutta) or baked in timbales, known in Italy as sformati, timpani and timballi.
- Pasta lunga (long pasta): in the past, pasta like spaghetti and tagliatelle were cut in long strings that were originally sold in traditional blue paper packaging (as were sugar and salt, indeed many modern manufacturers have gone back to this nostalgic look). However, this very long cut of pasta had to be broken when cooked, otherwise it would be too difficult to eat. Good dry pasta should still be flexible when bent and should have a glowing amber colour. Most long dried pasta is eaten as pasta asciutta, like short pasta, with just enough sauce to coat each strand, although some very fine varieties like capelli d’angelo (angel’s hair) are suitable for broths.
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