Thread: Top quality pasta

DavidW wrote:

> For those who are very particular about their pasta, I'd like to know
> some good brands. I use La Molisana (imported from Italy), which is
> the best I know by quite a margin (I boil their no. 15, which is
> spaghetti, for 18 minutes and it's still firm). However. it's not
> widely available in Australia. A mid-sized local supermarket has it,
> but I haven't seen it in the major chains, so I'd like a fallback for
> the day when I can't get it any more. If you are a pasta connoisseur
> anywhere in the world please suggest a brand or two.

La Molisana is a very good brand. IIRC, here in Italy it's about 1.50 euros
for a 1/2Kg box, while other brands are about .90 euros, with the lesser
brands around .80 and the superior ones around 1 - 1.20.
Another good brand which is widely distributed is Garofalo, very nice
texture, i love theyr linguine and penne. Liguori, also from Gragnano area
as Garofalo, is another good brand.
Barilla, once the symbol of low quality industrial pasta, has improved much
over the years and is nowadays an average quality product, IOW it so no more
the worst pasta you can find. It's reasonably priced and, probably, the most
widespread italian pasta on the globe.
--
Vilco
Mai guardare Trailer park Boys senza
qualcosa da bere a portata di mano

"ViLco" <[email protected]> ha scritto nel messaggio
> DavidW wrote:
>
>> For those who are very particular about their pasta, I'd like to know>>
>> some good brands.

> La Molisana is a very good brand. IIRC, here in Italy it's about 1.50
> euros > for a 1/2Kg box, while other brands are about .90 euros, with the
> lesser > brands around .80 and the superior ones around 1 - 1.20.> Another
> good brand which is widely distributed is Garofalo, very nice > texture, i
> love theyr linguine and penne. Liguori, also from Gragnano area > as
> Garofalo, is another good brand.
> Vilco

With 18 minutes of cooking, I think firm means something different to OP
than it would to us.
Garofolo is on sale at Conad this week for .79 per 500g!
I would go out on a limb and say that any pasta made in Gragnano is apt to
be the best. The entire community of pasta manufacturers seems to have
decided to stick with the old extruders and air drying and it makes an
incredible difference. I haven't tried a single brand name of it that
wasn't superb.

On Oct 22, 11:39 pm, "DavidW" <n...@email.provided> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> For those who are very particular about their pasta, I'd like to know some good
> brands. I use La Molisana (imported from Italy), which is the best I know by
> quite a margin (I boil their no. 15, which is spaghetti, for 18 minutes and
> it's still firm). However. it's not widely available in Australia. A mid-sized
> local supermarket has it, but I haven't seen it in the major chains, so I'd like
> a fallback for the day when I can't get it any more. If you are a pasta
> connoisseur anywhere in the world please suggest a brand or two.

OK, I am an idiot but willing to learn. Enlighten me.

I've always thought of all pasta as the same flour in different
shapes, just a starch base for my sauces.

Tell me why and how I should be particular.

peacelovedove

bulka

"bulka"
> On Oct 22, 11:39 pm, "DavidW"
>> For those who are very particular about their pasta, I'd like to know
>> some good
>> brands. I use La Molisana (imported from Italy), which is the best I know
>> by
>> quite a margin (I boil their no. 15, which is spaghetti, for 18 minutes
>> and
>> it's still firm). However. it's not widely available in Australia. A
>> mid-sized
>> local supermarket has it, but I haven't seen it in the major chains, so
>> I'd like
>> a fallback for the day when I can't get it any more. If you are a pasta
>> connoisseur anywhere in the world please suggest a brand or two.
>
> OK, I am an idiot but willing to learn. Enlighten me.
>
> I've always thought of all pasta as the same flour in different
> shapes, just a starch base for my sauces.
>
> Tell me why and how I should be particular.
> bulka

That info is all over every kind of media. Just buy one of the brands
recommended and a crap brand and cook them and serve them the same,
correctly, of course. If you can't tell the difference, then you can save a
lot of money buying whatever is at the Dollar Store or whatever.

There are (believe it or not) at least 2 pasta brands made in North
Dakota (superior durum wheat source). The best is called "Dakota
Growers" - manufactured by a "co-op" of family farmers. These folks
also make "Dreamfields"- a whole wheat kind. They are marketed
nationwide in USA - I will ask the CEO's wife if they are in OZ &
Italy too,

Lynn in Fargo (ND)
(shameless namedropper) ;-)

DavidW wrote:
> Hello,
>
> For those who are very particular about their pasta, I'd like to know some good
> brands. I use La Molisana (imported from Italy), which is the best I know by
> quite a margin (I boil their no. 15, which is spaghetti, for 18 minutes and
> it's still firm). However. it's not widely available in Australia. A mid-sized
> local supermarket has it, but I haven't seen it in the major chains, so I'd like
> a fallback for the day when I can't get it any more. If you are a pasta
> connoisseur anywhere in the world please suggest a brand or two.
>
>
If you are so fussy why not make your own ?
Could you identify brands in a blind tasting?

Rheilly P

Lynn from Fargo wrote:

> There are (believe it or not) at least 2 pasta brands made in North
> Dakota (superior durum wheat source). The best is called "Dakota
> Growers" - manufactured by a "co-op" of family farmers. These folks
> also make "Dreamfields"- a whole wheat kind. They are marketed
> nationwide in USA - I will ask the CEO's wife if they are in OZ &
> Italy too,

Maybe theyr pasta is not available here in Italy, but surely a lot of durum
wheat comes here from north USA and Canada, and gets used to make pasta.
--
Vilco
Mai guardare Trailer park Boys senza
qualcosa da bere a portata di mano

I agree Garofalo is an excellent brand we use it often. As well and old
standby is De Cecco.

'Giusi[_2_ Wrote:
> ;1208802']"ViLco" [email protected]lid ha scritto nel messaggio-
> DavidW wrote:
> -
> For those who are very particular about their pasta, I'd like to know
>
> some good brands.--
> -
> La Molisana is a very good brand. IIRC, here in Italy it's about 1.50
>
> euros for a 1/2Kg box, while other brands are about .90 euros, with
> the
> lesser brands around .80 and the superior ones around 1 - 1.20.
> Another
> good brand which is widely distributed is Garofalo, very nice
> texture, i
> love theyr linguine and penne. Liguori, also from Gragnano area as
> Garofalo, is another good brand.
> Vilco-
>
> With 18 minutes of cooking, I think firm means something different to
> OP
> than it would to us.
> Garofolo is on sale at Conad this week for .79 per 500g!
> I would go out on a limb and say that any pasta made in Gragnano is apt
> to
> be the best. The entire community of pasta manufacturers seems to have
>
> decided to stick with the old extruders and air drying and it makes an
>
> incredible difference. I haven't tried a single brand name of it that
>
> wasn't superb.




--
cookingpatty

"Rheilly Phoull" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]..
> DavidW wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> For those who are very particular about their pasta, I'd like to know
>> some good brands. I use La Molisana (imported from Italy), which is the
>> best I know by quite a margin (I boil their no. 15, which is spaghetti,
>> for 18 minutes and it's still firm). However. it's not widely available
>> in Australia. A mid-sized local supermarket has it, but I haven't seen it
>> in the major chains, so I'd like a fallback for the day when I can't get
>> it any more. If you are a pasta connoisseur anywhere in the world please
>> suggest a brand or two.
>>
>>
> If you are so fussy why not make your own ?
> Could you identify brands in a blind tasting?
>
> Rheilly P

It certainly is possible to tell the difference between Coles Home crap and
anything else. My daughter complained about it and after I tasted the stuff
I was forced to agree with her. Serves me right for buying house garbage.
hoges in WA

"Rheilly Phoull"
> DavidW wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> For those who are very particular about their pasta, I'd like to know
>> some good brands. I use La Molisana (imported from Italy), which is the
>> best I know by quite a margin (I boil their no. 15, which is spaghetti,
>> for 18 minutes and it's still firm). However. it's not widely available
>> in Australia. A mid-sized local supermarket has it, but I haven't seen it
>> in the major chains,

> If you are so fussy why not make your own ?
> Could you identify brands in a blind tasting?
>
> Rheilly P

You mistake egg pasta made at home for the hard wheat pasta he's talking
about. One does not stand in for the other, they are totally different
things.

It is not important to know one brand from the other blind folded. It is
important to educate your taste buds and teeth to quality, so that cheap or
costly, you get the quality that matters to you. To you, not to me.

Hoges in WA wrote:

>> If you are so fussy why not make your own ?
>> Could you identify brands in a blind tasting?
>>
>> Rheilly P
>
> It certainly is possible to tell the difference between Coles Home crap and
> anything else. My daughter complained about it and after I tasted the stuff
> I was forced to agree with her. Serves me right for buying house garbage.
> hoges in WA
>
I once bought Skinner brand pasta. Never again. 'nuff said. Ugh!

bulka wrote:
> "DavidW" wrote:
>
> > For those who are very particular about their pasta, I'd like to know some good
> > brands. I use La Molisana (imported from Italy), which is the best I know by
> > quite a margin (I boil their no. 15, which is spaghetti, �for 18 minutes and
> > it's still firm). However. it's not widely available in Australia. A mid-sized
> > local supermarket has it, but I haven't seen it in the major chains, soI'd like
> > a fallback for the day when I can't get it any more. If you are a pasta
> > connoisseur anywhere in the world please suggest a brand or two.
>
> OK, I am an idiot but willing to learn. �Enlighten me.
>
> I've always thought of all pasta as the same flour in different
> shapes, just a starch base for my sauces.
>
> Tell me why and how I should be particular.

You're partially correct. The quality of the ingredients are pretty
much universally identical regardless of whose pasta, as unless one
has an "in" with Mother Nature there is little control of each
season's wheat crop. Wheat has a rather short shelf life so it can't
be stored very long lest it go rancid and so except for very small
cottage industry style operations who grow their own wheat (and that
has no guarantee of superiority) all major pasta manufacturers buy on
the open market from the same sources.

But the manufacturing nuances of extruded pasta is something only an
experienced tool and diemaker can truly understand, and there is where
the real differences in pastas lie, their price spreads between
labels, and why one configuration costs differently from another...
the better quality the extrusion equipment the better quality the
pasta... when you buy extruded pasta far more of the price is
representive of the extrusion equipment than the wheat. And try to
remmember that there aren't all that many major pasta manufacturers
(high volume production equipment is far too costly). Many of the
different labels are made in the same plants, as are the store brands,
and many have no brand, they're sold in bulk by the tons to other food
manufactureres who use pasta in their products (mac n' cheese, etc.)
and so are the same product in a different package. When you see some
odd named pasta at an unusually low price (and sometimes a higher
price as a marketing ploy) it's usually an end of run batch...
extrusion dies wear and it's costly to shut down a line for a complete
change over so they continue production but at the sacrifice of some
quality while getting the last miles out of the dies. I don't really
care to go into a lesson on extruding here so I will impart just one
bit of advice; those who like to make their own pasta at home should
continue so they know what/who's in it, but stick to non-extruded
shapes, no home style pasta extruder is capable of producing quality
pasta, and actually ruins your ingredients.

"Hoges in WA" <[email protected]> wrote in
news:b7_Lk.7980$[email protected]:

>
> "Rheilly Phoull" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]..
>> DavidW wrote:
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> For those who are very particular about their pasta, I'd like to
>>> know some good brands. I use La Molisana (imported from Italy),
>>> which is the best I know by quite a margin (I boil their no. 15,
>>> which is spaghetti, for 18 minutes and it's still firm). However.
>>> it's not widely available in Australia. A mid-sized local
>>> supermarket has it, but I haven't seen it in the major chains, so
>>> I'd like a fallback for the day when I can't get it any more. If you
>>> are a pasta connoisseur anywhere in the world please suggest a brand
>>> or two.
>>>
>>>
>> If you are so fussy why not make your own ?
>> Could you identify brands in a blind tasting?
>>
>> Rheilly P
>
> It certainly is possible to tell the difference between Coles Home
> crap and anything else. My daughter complained about it and after I
> tasted the stuff I was forced to agree with her. Serves me right for
> buying house garbage. hoges in WA
>
>


Awhile back, I went on a bit of a shopping spree....

http://s199.photobucket.com/albums/a...pping%20spree/


I then got a copy of Jamie Olivers Pasta dough recipe.....

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/p...ic-recipe-for-
fresh-egg-pasta

The end result..........

http://s199.photobucket.com/albums/a...emade%20pasta/

I don't remember what the sauce was that I made to go on it, but I sure do
remember what the pasta was like. Which is why (even though it's a PITA)
I'm still making my own pasta dough.

Try it........ you won't go back to pre-packaged (unless it's an absolute
emergency!!).


--
Peter Lucas
Brisbane
Australia


If we are not meant to eat animals,
why are they made of meat?

> GUEST wrote:
> Hello,
>
> For those who are very particular about their pasta, I'd like to
know some good
> brands. I use La Molisana (imported from Italy), which is the best
I know by
> quite a margin (I boil their no. 15, which is spaghetti, for 18
minutes and
> it's still firm). However. it's not widely available in Australia.
A mid-sized
> local supermarket has it, but I haven't seen it in the major
chains, so I'd like
> a fallback for the day when I can't get it any more. If you are a
pasta
> connoisseur anywhere in the world please suggest a brand or
two.

IIm a bittoni fan, just regular pasta but does the trick
for me...and now that we are on that, i feel im gonna make me a bowl
for lunch...sounds nice...

Sheldon wrote:

> I don't really care to go into a lesson on extruding here

Good. You've fed us enough of your usual BS already.

-sw

In article
<[email protected]>,
bulka <[email protected]> wrote:

> On Oct 22, 11:39 pm, "DavidW" <n...@email.provided> wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > For those who are very particular about their pasta, I'd like to know some
> > good
> > brands. I use La Molisana (imported from Italy), which is the best I know
> > by
> > quite a margin (I boil their no. 15, which is spaghetti, for 18 minutes
> > and
> > it's still firm). However. it's not widely available in Australia. A
> > mid-sized
> > local supermarket has it, but I haven't seen it in the major chains, so I'd
> > like
> > a fallback for the day when I can't get it any more. If you are a pasta
> > connoisseur anywhere in the world please suggest a brand or two.
>
> OK, I am an idiot but willing to learn. Enlighten me.
>
> I've always thought of all pasta as the same flour in different
> shapes, just a starch base for my sauces.
>
> Tell me why and how I should be particular.

Depends what you mean by "same flour". To make it simple, flour is made
from soft wheat or hard wheat. Cake flour is made from soft wheat,
flour made from hard wheat is called bread flour. Durum wheat, used for
quality pasta, is made from the hardest of the hard wheat. Hard wheat
is more expensive. Thus, cheap pasta may be made out of cheap wheat,
and will not have the same texture as better pasta. If you make mushy
pasta, it is less important as to what kind of wheat was used to make
the pasta.

--
Dan Abel
Petaluma, California USA
[email protected]

Sheldon wrote:
>
> quality while getting the last miles out of the dies. I don't really
> care to go into a lesson on extruding here so I will impart just one
> bit of advice; those who like to make their own pasta at home should
> continue so they know what/who's in it, but stick to non-extruded
> shapes, no home style pasta extruder is capable of producing quality
> pasta, and actually ruins your ingredients.

Lidia Bastianich made extruded pasta on her cooking show,
using a meat grinder with a fine plate and the blade removed.

But what does she know, compared to Sheldon?

Dan Abel wrote:
>
> Depends what you mean by "same flour". To make it simple, flour is made
> from soft wheat or hard wheat. Cake flour is made from soft wheat,

Most flour is made from blends of wheats. Air separators
separate the heavier protein-rich particles (semolina) from
near the surface of the wheat berry from the lighter starchy
particles (dunst) from the core of the wheat berry. Cake flour
is mostly dunst and intermediate fractions (middlings).

> flour made from hard wheat is called bread flour. Durum wheat, used for

Bread flour can be made from any kind of wheat. Air separators
allow sorting the wheat particles by protein content, and any type
of flour can be created by suitable blending of these fractions.

> quality pasta, is made from the hardest of the hard wheat. Hard wheat
> is more expensive. Thus, cheap pasta may be made out of cheap wheat,
> and will not have the same texture as better pasta. If you make mushy
> pasta, it is less important as to what kind of wheat was used to make
> the pasta.

You can make high-quality pasta from any kind of wheat,
just not as much of it as from a protein-rich wheat.
Even the lowest quality wheat will give you some semolina,
and you can use that to make high-quality pasta.

I've recently tried Ronzoni Smart Taste which I found to be quite good.

JonquilJan

Learn something new every day
As long as you are learning, you are living
When you stop learning, you start dying