BWW Cooks: Using Bronze Die Pasta

You've been watching those culinary competition shows again. We can tell. You're having nervous breakdowns over fresh pasta. Should you buy it in the grocery store, go to the specialty shop, or make it yourself? Can you possibly get it thin enough running it through the pasta machine? What did you do with your pasta machine back when, anyway, and wouldn't a Kitchen Aid attachment be cooler?

Quit worrying. The truth is far different. While you picture that little trattoria in Rome with the elderly grandmother kneading pasta by hand in the back, that trattoria is using dried, boxed pasta. And it's not cheating, either. Here's the truth: while you've become convinced that Italian cuisine is dependent upon beautiful, fresh pasta, it is in fact, and always has been, dependent on excellent-quality dried boxed pasta. And you should be, too. Stop competing with the contestants on your favorite cook-off - Italy isn't calling them in some special way that it's not calling you.

In Italy, in fact, the making of dried pasta is strictly controlled, while the production of fresh pasta isn't, so many Italians believe that the chances are that their dry pasta may well be of superior quality to fresh. Fresh is for special occasions once or twice a year, but even in the best restaurants, the best dishes normally come from boxed pastas.

Should you buy Italian or American pasta? If it's made properly, it doesn't matter; you're looking for quality, not place of origin. It's true that one brand, Barilla, dominates the Italian market and is huge in the American market, and that it's also been boycotted over gay rights issues. Before jumping to conclusions that market share equals quality, remember that America's most popular candies are Hershey bars and the like, not top-quality chocolates. Popular and quality aren't identical in pasta either.

The two most important issues in your pasta are your wheat and your dies that shape the pasta. Regarding the first, the best pasta is made from semolina from hard durum wheat flour. In Italy, it's called semola di grano duro rather than semolina, in case you have to follow Italian labeling. It is higher in protein - gluten - than all-purpose flour or bread flour, which winds up being used most often in fresh pasta; the semolina stands up better to heavy-duty cooking and saucing. Notably, Italy is one of the European countries with the highest percentages of gluten-intolerant diners. Gluten-free pastas are available, but most lack the texture of high-quality wheat pastas. (This writer has had reasonable results with Tinkyada whole-grain rice pastas, but most gluten-free pastas have both flavor and texture issues.)

As for dies? Dried pasta is not cut, but extruded through shaped dies. These dies may be made of bronze, Teflon, or gold-coated metal. Bronze wears down easily, and the pasta from it absorbs more water; Teflon holds up well. But bronze-die pasta has qualities that make it better able to hold pasta sauce; it has a rougher texture. It's also usually dried at lower temperatures, also producing a better texture after cooking.

The very popular Barilla pastas are not bronze-die extruded; they are commercial dry pasta rather than a more artisanal quality of dried pasta. (There is a second line, available some places but not all that have Barilla, Academia Barilla, that is a better-quality artisanal dry pasta.) On the other hand, American-produced Ronzoni has bronze-die pasta on store shelves. And some store brands are now producing upscale bronze-die pastas based on quality semolina as well.

Which brands to buy? Even though there is a price range among pastas, most are still inexpensive, and they are often on sale. Try as many of the bronze-die semolina pastas as you can, and you may find a distinct preference for one or another. If you have never cooked with them before, you may discover your first time out that you strongly prefer bronze-die artisanal pastas better than the typical commercial pasta regardless of country of origin. My own family agreed the first time we tried bronze-die linguine that it was far superior to commercial Italian pasta. You can if you wish purchase more expensive artisanal bronze-die pastas at specialty shops, sometimes paying over seven dollars for a kilo (2.2 lb.) of pasta, but even upgrading within the supermarket will improve your dishes tremendously over your Barilla, San Giorgio, or Creamettes pasta or the more commercial smooth-die versions of any of the bronze-die semolina upscale delights.

One other thing to remember: now that you've upgraded your pasta, don't drown it. Americans also over-sauce their pasta amazingly compared to Italians; you want to be able to see and taste your pasta, not just use it as a base for a heavy, meat-filled thick sauce that causes it to disappear under its quantity and weight. And there's a simple rule for knowing which kinds of sauces to use with the wide variety of pastas - the thicker the shape, the heavier the sauce. Cappelli are best with a light, thin sauce - olive oil or butter and garlic are sufficient. A thicker spaghetti stands up to a heavier marinara. For in-between thicknesses, why not cook canned plum tomatoes with a glass of wine and some roasted garlic and a bit of black pepper and salt? Once it's slightly reduced but not thick, you have a sauce that's far better for the various thinner pastas than any of the heavy store sauces.

For fusilli, penne, rigatoni, and the other thicker, hollow pastas, choose the sauces with large chunks of vegetables, sausage, and other weightier items, and the thicker sauces that need something to cling to. It's why the heaviness of meat and sausage, thick tomato sauce, and béchamel are taken up by the thick, sturdy lasagna noodle.

Using the better bronze-die pastas and pairing them with the right sauces for their type will yield the best results for your dishes. It's the way that trattoria you keep remembering from that trip to Rome was actually doing its pasta.

Leave the egg-laden, thinly-rolled, hand-cut complications for those cooking reality show contestants - they don't even cook that way in their own restaurants. Don't make it hard on yourself by following their examples; make it easy on yourself by cooking pastas as Italians really do. You and your guests will be all the happier for it.

Photo Credit: Freeimages.com

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