Lidia's Italy

When you buy pasta asciutta (dry pasta), look for these qualities: It should be made of 100% semolina flour; the higher the protein in the semolina, the better—14% is a good amount. The pasta should have a rough finish. It should be opaque and should not be blotchy or have white specks, and it should not be cracked or broken. Imported Italian pasta is more likely to possess these characteristics than any other, although there are very good pastas now being produced in the United States. When buying pasta look for different shapes, lengths, and ridges; they all add an extra element of texture and palette stimulation, and the sauces lodge better in the pastas with nooks and crannies. My pasta line has 8 cuts of bronze die cast pasta, each with a really fabulous nutty, high quality wheat flavor. The pasta shapes are capellini, spaghetti, fettucine, linguine, penne rigate, fusilli, rigatoni and farfalle. They are 100% durum wheat semolina and have a14% protein content.