Why are there two types of pasta, fresh and dried?
Traditionally it was the wheat that made all the difference. The hot climate of southern Italy was suitable for growing hard durum wheat, while the north suited a softer species that yielded a flour with less strength. Durum wheat flour needs only water to make a stiff dough that can stand up to being extruded through the presses, the dies that create the shapes. In the north, eggs were added to give strength to the dough and the pasta was either rolled and cut into ribbons (tagliatelle, fettucini) or cut and wrapped around fillings (tortellini, ravioli). In the days before pasteurisation the egg content meant that this pasta had to be freshly made. Is packaged durum wheat pasta a pure food? Pasta has not lost its integrity in spite of mechanisation. It contains durum wheat, water and nothing else. Compare this to white sliced bread, which needs help in the form of added enzymes, preservatives and flour improvers. Italian scientists claim that pasta provides a long-lasting drip-feed of
