Food judges on chef competition shows love to get up in arms about whether a chef used dried pasta, gasp. Only an amateur would use pasta from a box! The idea that everybody in Italy makes their own pasta daily is a cultural myth. Italians actually eat more dried pasta than fresh pasta and it is perfectly appropriate to use dried pasta in a dish that calls for dried pasta. Sometimes, a high-quality dried pasta, made with hard durum wheat, is just the thing.
I suspect that the myth of fresh pasta has been helped along by the cookbook industry and perhaps the food blogging industry. After all, if you’re trying to get people to buy an entire book dedicated to fresh pasta making, it helps to sing the virtues of fresh pasta. Even better: Make people think fresh pasta is superior and more authentic. If you want to cook like a real Italian, you must make your own!
These cookbooks sell the myth that fresh pasta is an everyday food in Italy and every Italian home cook worth their salt spends hours making pasta each and every day. In reality, fresh pasta is something for once-in-a-while at home! it’s not something you labor over every day for your dinner. It’s for special occasions or a big special meal. If you want fresh pasta more often, you’d buy it from a shop or a restaurant.
As I explained here, dried pasta is not fresh pasta that has been dried. It is a different product made out of a different kind of dough, one that is extruded or shaped in molds instead of being rolled out and cut (your home pasta maker “cuts” the dough). Dried pasta is exactly what you want in a robust spaghetti bolognese, for example. Fresh pasta is appropriate for more delicate and traditional sauces. Those precious-sounding chef-judges that cry foul over “pasta in a box” really should know better. Now, I’m even seeing regular folks say stuff like “Bad Italian restaurants use “shit-box” pasta.” It is utterly ignorant and ridiculous. What is especially ignorant about this is that an Italian may be likely to tell you the opposite. High quality dried pasta is the real deal and fresh pasta is made when you can’t afford that and need to use what you have on hand to make pasta.
Many people have been sold romantic visions of Italian grandmothers slaving away making fresh pasta for half the day to get ready for dinner. It only requires a bit of a “reality check” to put this vision to bed. This is not to say that you cannot find people making fresh pasta in Italy. According to Tana Schwarz, writing in Italy Segreta:
Walk past restaurants and trattorias in the city center of Rome, and you’ll see women (most often elderly ones) rolling out fresh pasta by hand through the windows, flinging together cavatelli, pappardelle, and tonnarelli like a pianist playing notes by heart. In Puglia’s capital, Bari, nonne famously sit on stools in the streets, thumbing little balls of dough into orecchiette, to be topped with cime di rapa.
However, she goes on to say that if you walk through an Italian grocery store, you’ll understand the real world of pasta in Italy, and now people actually eat. “entire aisles are dedicated to a single staple pantry item, dried pasta, with a wide-ranging selection of shapes, sizes, and brands to choose from.”
The truth is that most restaurants in Italy use the same brands of dried pastas as Italians use at home.
People have begun to think of dried pasta as a corruption of a traditional food, borne during the industrialization of the 20th century when pre-packaged processed foods were increasingly being marketed and advertised. But, dried pasta is not new at all. Drying pasta is indeed an ancient practice, first done to make pasta shelf-stable enough to survive long ocean voyages. Dried pasta became a regular part of Italians’ diets during the 1800s.
During the 20th century, just like in America, Italian women started extending their education and finding jobs outside the home. They didn’t have time for the laborious and time-intensive practice of making fresh pasta. Dried pasta, which had become industrialized, started to replace fresh pasta as a convenient alternative for everyday meals.
Today, many Italians prefer dried pasta. They like the tooth feel and the texture better than fresh pasta. To put it simply, the oft-stated claim that fresh pasta is superior and real Italians only eat fresh pasta is a myth!
- Unique Shape: Bucatini features a hollow center, providing a delightful twist on traditional spaghetti, perfect for capturing sauces.
- Authentic Italian Origin: A staple from Rome to Sicily, this pasta is ideal for traditional recipes like Amatriciana and con le Sarde.
- Versatile Pairings: Enjoy with any tomato-based sauce and experience the joy of slurping as the Romans do!
- Quality Ingredients: Made from durum wheat semolina and water, ensuring a classic taste and texture.
- Quick Cooking Time: Ready in just 10-12 minutes, Bucatini is perfect for quick and satisfying meals.
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I disagree with the article linked above on one thing, that Italian pasta made with 100% heirloom varieties grown in Italy is always superior. Most of these varieties have a lower protein content than some of the imported varieties. Pastas made only from them may have more flavor but they will not be that perfect al dente. A mixture of heirloom Durum wheat varieties and some higher protein varieties will produce a flavorful pasta that has a lot of tenacity when cooked. It won’t get mushy and will stay in the “al dente” phase for much longer.
