Pasta

Pasta is the Italian food per excellence, it is at the basis of the Mediterranean Diet. Its production, in Italy, is regulated by the Legge sulla Purezza (Law on Purity), and two different types of it exist:

• Dry pasta: produced with water and semolina, and it must respond to the characteristics in terms of humidity and minimum percentage of proteins.
• Fresh pasta: it is realized with soft wheat flour and it must be conserved at a temperature that does not go over 4 degrees. It must be consumed within five days from its production. The minimum humidity on the intern must be of 24%.

Another kind of pasta is Egg Pasta, which can be dry and it contains hen egg on its dough, in a production of 200 gr. per each semolina kilo.

For example, the production phases of the dry pasta, which is the kind of pasta more consumed and more sold, are subdivided in:

• Selection: the hard wheat groats are chosen according to determinate quality standards that consider the physical criteria, specific weight and the presence of impurities in the groats. Even technological criteria, such as the apport of protein presence, gluten quality and the yellow index of the raw material. Usually, for the pasta-making are used the groats obtained from the heart of the grain of wheat, deleting the bran parts, to ensure a high protein content.
• Grinding: the mill that receives the wheat is responsible for sifting it in order to obtain a high-quality semolina. The grains are progressively broken through rolling mills, and then in bolts, which separate the bran. In the end, through a cylinder of grind, the flour is refined to arrive at the final noble product: semolina.
• Dough and kneading: the hard wheat semolina is processed with pure water in apposite dough pools. The kneading, that is the diameter of the particles of ground semolina, determines the final result of the dough.
• Extrusion: the dough is modelled by dies machines, that will determine the final form. Exist two types of extrusion:
  • In bronze, which gives back to the pasta a rough surface which contains better the condiments, but is more likely to be overcooked.
  • In teflon, which gives back a smooth surface to the pasta and supports better the cooking phase.
• Drying process: it is probably the more delicate phase in the entire productive cycle. The pasta is left to rest in special dryers, ventilating it with hot air to reduce the water content. The maximum humidity reached, by law, is 12,5%.
• Cooling: it takes place inside dedicated coolers, until to bring the pasta to room temperature after the ventilation.
• Packaging: the pasta is firstly stocked into silos, then is packaged. This phase is important in order to preserve the product from contamination to external agents and to present it to the consumer accompanied by an informative label.

The consume of pasta in Italy are estimated to 23 kilos per year, together with fruit and vegetable, this product present the major sale for Italian families. Moreover, only in the first months of 2020, due to the pandemic situation, the export is increased of 25%.

To the pasta is also dedicated the World Pasta Day the 25th of October, and in 2020, coincided with the tenth anniversary of the inclusion of the Mediterranean Diet, and therefore of pasta, in the Intangible Heritage of UNESCO.