How to recognize
quality pasta
Pasta is food that is rich in important nutrients and is highly digestible. However, to preserve these characteristics, it must cook evenly on the outside as well as on the inside and not lose its nutrients in the water during cooking.
Pasta is of high quality when:
It has the right thickness that allows it to cook evenly and in the right amount of time (not too long)
It has the right thickness that allows it to cook evenly and in the right amount of time (not too long)
It remains compact, firm and elastic, that is, “al dente” even for many hours AFTER cooking
It cooks evenly on the outside and inside, without any parts remaining uncooked (which are often mistaken for the characteristic of being “al dente”) and it appears, after cooking, without any external patina
Its cooking water is as clear as possible (when the cooking time is long, the pasta loses starch, vitamins, proteins in the water and appears “rocky-like” while chewing)
While chewing it is elastic and firm, characteristics that make pasta “al dente”. Elasticity is achieved if the gluten is of high quality (and this depends on the use of fine semolina) and if the drying process is carried out at the right temperatures
It is porous. Porosity, in fact, allows each grain of pasta to absorb water uniformly from the outside to the inside and therefore to cook perfectly. This feature also depends on the drying process used: if it is moderate, i.e. conducted at the right temperatures, the surface of the pasta does not plasticize, it remains porous, being able to absorb water
The colour is a warm bright yellow both before and after cooking. In fact, one of the fundamental requirements for semolina to be judged high quality, is its yellow index which must not be less than 24. If dried at very high temperatures (today very common in Italian and foreign pasta factories, because in this way the production times and costs are cut in half), externally the pasta undergoes a process that causes it to become “plasticky”, which results in a long cooking time and in uneven cooking; it will remain uncooked on the inside and will be less digestible. Pasta is appreciated instead because it is a digestible food suitable for many people
The characteristics of Granoro pasta
Right thickness
Uniform
cooking
Produced
with selected
semolinas
Excellent firmness
The characteristics of Granoro Pasta are its aroma, the right degree of thickness, the intense yellow colour, the delicate taste, the elasticity and consistency after cooking (even after many hours).
These are the characteristics of fine pasta that can be summarised in the concept of “pasta al dente”.
Granoro is a high-quality pasta thanks to the careful selection of durum wheat semolina (obtained exclusively only from the heart of the wheat grain), from the careful checks carried out during all stages of production, from the pasta-making methods that the Mastromauro family has a profound knowledge of. In addition, it cooks evenly and after cooking it is “al dente”, remaining compact and firm even after being left on the plate for many hours.
The long cooking time is not a sign of quality, but is determined by a greater thickness of the pasta
The very “thick” pasta is cooked on the outside and partially uncooked on the inside, giving the false impression of being al dente.
