Fresh Vs. Dried Pasta – Fresh is Always Better?
In the English speaking foodie world it’s understood that fresh pasta is always better than dried pasta; fresh pasta is the only way to experience the best dishes. But what if we’ve all been wrong? What if dried pasta is better for some dishes? Those questions are at the heart of the latest series from YouTube Cook Alex “French Guy Cooking”.
It turns out that dried pasta is actually a very different product to its fresh cousin. Dried pasta is made from finely ground semolina flour and water (no egg!) mixed into a paste, extruded through molds at high pressure to the variety of shapes, and sliced to the lengths of pasta you can find on grocery shelves all over the world. These ingredients and industrial processes give an entirely different mouth-feel, and what Alex calls “toothsomeness”, or foodies refer to as al dente. So why have we all had dishes of uninspiring dried pasta? Read on, and go watch Alex explain, to find out.
Why Dried Pasta Can Taste Bad
Dried pasta has a bad reputation. I believe that is mainly because it is the first dish students learn to cook for themselves in college. Inevitably it would be the cheapest packet on the shelf and probably cooked without too much care or attention. Add to that a cheap spoonful of acidic tomato sauce, and you’d be forgiven for looking down on dried pasta. But as you’ll see not all dried pasta is the same, and how you prepare this cheap staple makes a big difference.
How To Cook Better Dried Pasta Dishes
From my example, and like most food, we can see the two places we can improve.
- Ingredient Quality – Not all dried are created equally. They differ in the type and quality of semolina; how they are dried (hot and fast, vs. low and slow); and the material they are extruded through (bronze vs Teflon).
- Preparation – Ignore the timing on the packet. Whatever you do, don’t just get a pot boiling, tip in the pasta, “hey siri/google/alexa, set a timer for 12 minutes” and walk away to watch your latest Netflix binge show! Keep tasting the pasta to catch the point it has just the right amount of bite. And if you’ll be finishing the pasta in a pan of sauce, aim to be a little on the undercooked side, it’ll finish cooking in the sauce.
First we’ll cover the star ingredient.
Which Dried Pasta Is Best
Alex made his own personal table ranking commercially available dried pastas. Use this as a starting point for switching brands and upping your weeknight pasta game. The brands available where you are will vary, but it’ll be worth a detour to a higher end grocery store or Italian deli to try something on the artisan end of the scale.
Dishes Best Suited To Dried Pasta
Many many dishes work excellently with a dried pasta. The pairing of pasta shapes and sauces is an art that Alex addresses succinctly in the episode embedded in this article (9:15). He has even made a couple of handy posters with shapes, names and typical sauce pairings. I’ve also found this guide from the Eataly store visited in this episode to give you a head-start picking dry pasta and sauce combo.
In an earlier episode of the series, Alex visited Luciano Monosilio, an Italian chef in Rome who produces some of his own dried pastas and prepares a beautiful looking Aglio e Olio. This apparently simple dish might be a good place to start on your own journey to greater dried pasta dishes.
A recipe with a short and small pasta is from my favourite YouTube pasta channel, Pasta Grammar. It uses the uniquely shaped orecchiette (“little ear”) and a broccoli rabe sauce, ORECCHIETTE ALLE CIME DI RAPA. The Eataly guide suggests sausage as a combination with the rabe, and that’s definitely going on my list to try.
So wrapping up, I hope that your view of dried pasta has improved, and you’re encouraged that done the right way, it can be the foundation of excellent dishes! Please do visit the great creators featured in this article who have opened my eyes to dry pasta. Buon appetito!
