Despite it being a pantry staple, many don’t know pastas aren’t all created equally.
A difference in quality can be the difference between a simple meal and a culinary triumph.
Thankfully, Italian chef Francesco Mattana has revealed a simple trick to deciphering the quality of pasta in a viral TikTok video.
Watch the video above.
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An Italian chef has revealed how to tell the quality of your pasta. (@our_cookingjourney via TikTok)
“Many of you ask me, Francesco, what is a good quality pasta brand? I can’t really give you a particular type of brand, but I can help you choose the best quality pasta that you can find in any supermarket,” Mattana began.
Sitting in front of two bowls of penne, he shared that the ingredients were the exact same: “Durum wheat, semolina and water.”
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“A good pasta must have a light yellow colour, almost ivory. This means the pasta has been dried slowly on a low temperature and all of the nutrients haven’t been burned,” he explained.
Mattana held up the lower-quality option and warned: “When you find yourself in front of this, a shelf of bright yellow-coloured pasta, well, that’s not a good sign.”
“When you find yourself in front of … a shelf of bright yellow-coloured pasta, that’s not a good sign.” (@our_cookingjourney via TikTok)
“This means the pasta is being put through a violent drying process, which means a very high temperature for a very short amount of time.”
The chef says the surface of pasta should be rough and opaque as a result of the extrusion technique.
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“So if you want to level up your pasta dishes then look for ‘rafilata al bronzo’ or bronze drawn extruded, this will help you create a nice creamy sauce.”
Mattana also shared that you can differentiate quality through the cooking process, revealing that the better the pasta, the better it will hold its shape.
The cooking content creator concluded: “I hope that now you have a little bit more knowledge to choose the best pasta you can find.”
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