Why Sauce Is Better for Some Brands of Pasta Than Others
If you eat a lot of pasta, you may have noticed that some brands absorb sauce better than others. To understand why this is the case, Cook’s Illustrated examined pasta manufacturing processes and their effect on texture.
It turns out that pasta, which is extruded in the “traditional” way through bronze dies, has a rough surface that perfectly absorbs and holds the sauce. Most “modern” pasta is passed through silicone dies, which is cheaper and faster, but the result is super smooth noodles without much grip strength. According to Cook’s Illustrated, the difference is fairly easy to spot.
Traditionally cooked pasta often says on the label that it was made using bronze dies, but you can easily recognize the visual cues: pasta squeezed through bronze dies will look rougher on the surface, while noodles squeezed through Teflon matrix looks perfectly smooth.
Traditionally cooked pasta not only absorbs more sauce, but also requires 30% more water to cook than extruded silicone pasta, so make sure you have a lot in the pot.
Why Some Pasta Soak Up More (or Less) Sauce | Illustrated chef