Pasta- dried or fresh- what is the proper way?

dannahaz

Phil, it depends what you mean by "fresh". If you mean fresh as in made yourself, then that is better than even good dried pasta...but imho not necessarily better enough to warrant the effort involved.

If you mean "fresh" as in the "fresh" pasta sold in supermarkets, then good quality dried pasta is much better. The stuff sold as "fresh" in the refrigerated section in supermarkets is not "fresh" at all, it's more mummified than anything.

Personally, I always use really good quality dried pasta, like DeCecco. It keeps for ages, it's in the cupboard when I want it, and there's no extra clearing up like there is with home made pasta.

nikibella

Hi,
I'm Italian as well and basically I agree with Quasar. I just wanted to add a few things. Italy is big (especially long) and every region has its own cuisine. Fresh pasta is more popular where the typical dishes are tagliatelle, ravioli or tortellini (e.g. Emilia Romagna in the north) and dried in the south where they prefer it with different sauces or in vegetable dishes. But basically we eat more dried pasta as it is more practical and convenient to cook.

Heth_2

I spent 14 years growing up in Italy and I'd say the people I knew and my parents knew would be using dry pasta almost all the time. Especially my friends, whose parents usually both worked full time, would be having dried pasta for dinner out of convenience. On a special occasion they might buy fresh pasta from a deli or make it, but for an everyday dish it would be the dried stuff.

Quasar

nikibella wrote:

Hi,
I'm Italian as well and basically I agree with Quasar. I just wanted to add a few things. Italy is big (especially long) and every region has its own cuisine. Fresh pasta is more popular where the typical dishes are tagliatelle, ravioli or tortellini (e.g. Emilia Romagna in the north) and dried in the south where they prefer it with different sauces or in vegetable dishes. But basically we eat more dried pasta as it is more practical and convenient to cook.

Buongiorno nikibella, e grazie!

Yes every region has its distinct cuisine, although of course many dishes have now crossed the boundaries, so to speak.

I come from the north, near Switzerland and yes we do a lot of fresh pasta such as ravioli, tortellini and cappelletti. Specifically, in my own region (Piedmont) we do "Bagna Cauda" (literally "Hot Dip") which is a kind of fondue suitable for the frozen winter evenings. :drool:

culpepper

I sometimes make my own ,especially the sheets of pasta for lasgne.
Its easier to make more than you need and hang some up to dry for later in the week. I'd be suprised if Italian women didn't do that especially if they weren't using a food processor or a pasta machine,it can take hours to do it all by hand. Have you ever tried to roll out a sheet of pasta with a rolling pin?

Becles

I've found the Italian brand names mentioned taste much nicer than the supermarket own brands. I tend to buy them.

Why does quick cook dried pasta taste so minging? What do they do to it?

Quasar

Becles wrote:

I've found the Italian brand names mentioned taste much nicer than the supermarket own brands. I tend to buy them.

Why does quick cook dried pasta taste so minging? What do they do to it?

No idea Becles, but I suspect they pre-cook it slightly then let it dry again? Be as it may, that is blasphemy to me because "proper" pasta, dry or fresh, does not take long to cook anyway. I feel that the food industry is encouraging people to be lazy by providing faster and faster "food" which then loses much in terms of taste, let alone nutrients.

By the way, I cook only wholemeal pasta, which is little used in Italy. Except when I have my friends for dinner, most of whom turn up their noses at wholemeal stuff.

aurora_borealis_2

I think we're part Italian.
We have pasta about three times per week.

Fresh (supermarket pasta) is nice but sometimes I prefer the taste of dried, especially long spaghetti