There is no fight... just brotherhood

"It's better fresh or dried pasta?" This is a weird question for me. Eventually you can ask "Do you prefer fresh or dried pasta?" but you will just receive a personal answer. Lots of time in this country I listened someone asking this question and trying to compare the two: lots of people just things that fresh pasta is the "original and real pasta" while the dried one it's just an industrial version of it... or even that dried pasta is fresh pasta gone old (!?!?!?)

Anyway in Italy there is never been a reason for the two to be against each other, but just different occasions to use both.

As Mr Carluccio recently said in an interview: "There are 600 shapes of pasta, but only certain types should be used for certain sauces, and fresh is not always best. Fresh egg pasta is good for ravioli or mushroom, tomato and truffle sauce, but dried pasta such as spaghetti or linguine should be used for seafood as it has a little more bite." But I would add also Bolognese and reach meaty or cheesy sauces.
The "war" raged about whether fresh pasta is better than dried pasta, it's just no sense: both of them have different characteristics and use, so maybe it's just the case to try different sauces with them and find out what do you like the most.
"Fresh egg pasta is the most common fresh pasta and can be homemade or store-bought.  It is more typical of northern Italy, where the land is fertile and eggs have generally been more plentiful and affordable.  Southern Italians tend to rely more on dried pasta, that's keeps well in the hot and dry climate."  
For fresh pasta I suggest some simple melted butter sauce enriched by some sage, but also cream sauces are popular and vegetable and light tomato sauces.  The basic dough for homemade fresh pasta consists of eggs and all-purpose flour.  No salt, olive oil, or water is added.  The only other ingredient that may be used is spinach or Swiss chard for green pasta dough.

The finest dried pasta instead is made from golden semolina flour ground from durum wheat and mixed with water. In Pastificio dei Campi we use just 100% high qualitity Italian wheat, sourced in selected properties.  Once shaped, the pasta must be fully dried before it can be packaged and good quality dried pasta should have a slightly rough surface and compact body that maintains its firmness in cooking. We achieve this rought surface with the traditional bronze extraction and we are sure to maintain all the properties of the pasta with a long and slow drying process. Lots of industrial pasta is just dried for few hours a really hig temperature: this burn and destroy the pasta. We take 48 hours at around 40 degrees.

Typical sauces for dried pasta are based on olive oil rather than butter.  But as some of the recipes bear out, there are several butter-based sauces that combine well with dried pasta. In southern Italy, dried pasta is most often married with a tomato sauce, which may be plain or with meat, seafood, or vegetables.
I adore both of them but I found the dried pasta lighter and more versatile and good for a day by day use! What do you prefer?

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A great article on pasta, from the origins to the global and the English market.

On tuesday we were glad to see our Pastificio Dei Campi pasta on The Guardian "word of mouth" blog, named by Oliver Thring as the best pasta brand he ever tried.

The article in fact begins speaking about the latest news released by an Oxfam international research this year about the use of the pasta in the world and the fact that pasta is definetly the world's favorite food.

For sure a great result for something that has been invented and produced for years just in one little country like Italy. But is really like this and how this was possible? These are the questions the article wants to answer analyzing the origin of pasta, the steps in the history and its success during the years in Italy like abroad.

Do you know how much pasta the english consume every year? or do you know that especially the english children use to love it? And have you ever come across a student forum and their conversations about pasta and recipes?

Here are all the answers and some interesting and curious information about pasta.

Thanks again @OliverThring for the mention and let's hope to make the english discover and love the good italian pasta always more.

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Some other information about our PGI Pasta and the grain used.

Just to get ready for the pasta you will see and try this saturday at the Clifton Hill Food Market, we thought to give you some more news about the quality of the primary products we use.

From our new Youtube Channel comes this video of the harvest from the past June. It's in Italian, but i think you will appreciate the amazing view of fields, the color of the grain and the love in the farmers' eyes.

Giuseppe di Martino, owner of the brand Pastificio dei Campi says:

"The field you see in this video is 10 hectares, but it's just one of those from which come the durum wheat used by thePastificio Dei Campi. This process takes about one hectare of wheat a day because, in favor of quality, requires low yields, between 12 and 25 tons/hectare per day, compared to the average 55 for the more commercial grain. From that we get the wheat bran (60%), which, mixed with water, becomes the Gragnano Pasta by Pastificio dei Campi (about 25 tons per day).

When the Pastificio dei Campi started (which involved a careful study of the crop) the farmers who adhered to this type of production (made from low yields, regular rotations, organic farming, etc) were 7, all near the area between Apricena, Casalvecchio di Puglia and Lucera.

Last year the Pastificio dei Campi’s farmers/suppliers have become 35. In 2011 we arrived to 47! All owners of small plots, engaged in a crop that focuses on the quality.

But not all the wheat fields of the pasta factory comes from Puglia, in fact, we have trials field this year in Basilicata and Molise and in the provinces of Avellino and Benevento too. "

I hope to see you this saturday at the Clifton Hill Food Market to try the product and be amazed by it.

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"When the nature calls you need to run"

This has been the phrase I heard the most in these days. For a long time I have tried to plan my trip to Italy to be there during the harvest and to take part in this amazing event of pure life.

Unfortunately none can plan this trip before time,  because it's the nature to call and to decide when the magic moment will come. So this year the phone call came on a sunday afternoon, quite late in the days (normally is around the 13th of june) and everything was planned for the 24th of june. I needed to comeback in London on the 20th so I messed the event but here are the pictures from the Grain Harvest 2011 taken by Mafaldina Dei Campi.

Like a miracle, every year around these days in the De Vita Mills (FG) the grain complete its growth and reach its best, and this year even more with an extraordinary composition: an higher protein percentage, higher gluten percentage, a lower humidity, and a fantastic look and color. Everyone was really impressed and the farmers and the "De Vita" mill's owners too.

The images of these never ending yellow fields and the mountains of grain in the mill just speak for them self. 

After the harvest, the wheat is stored, controlled, carefully cleaned and placed in steel silos  then, once cooled, transferred to the cement silos that will keep the temperature stable up to the time of milling. In late August will begin the production of flour, that will be then used to create the Pasta di Gragnano "Pastificio dei Campi".

This is then the first step of the process that will bring an high quality PGI pasta on your plate. All is transparent, all is reported and all is traceable. That's quality food!

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In the pasta from Gragnano (PGI) Pastificio dei Campi,  you can trust.

 
In these days we are receiving lots of scary news about food: contaminated, unhealthy, not controlled... Even under radiations!
 
It's something awful for everyone and really tragic for all the people working in the field: now are the peasants in danger, but some years ago were the farmers the category most attacked by the problems with cows and chickens. So any now and then some fear is affecting our food decisions and daily menus.  
What about pasta then? Just few days ago in Italy an article came out  about the quality of the grain used in the big pasta productions and how the control made on it can be fine for adults but not enough for babies, especially if the production is made with a low quality grain.

Pastificio dei Campi , certified 100% Made in Italy, makes of its quality and safety its main characteristic:  for the production of quality pasta - which is good and healthy at the same time - its fundamental the selection of the good raw material.

Pastificio dei Campi is committed in the use of durum wheat only from some of the most suitable Italian regions (Puglia, Basilicata and Molise), where maize is cultivated with great care and where humidity levels are so low that it’s hard to produce any mycotoxins. Together with the Molino de Vita, Pastificio dei Campi makes a very accurate selection of durum wheat, following the work from planting to the harvest.

Our pasta from Gragnano is totally traceable from farm to table, to provide full transparency for consumers who need to know exactly what to bring to the table! Every external and internal process inherent to the production of the pasta is monitored in a data bank. Google Maps connects to our data bank, allowing everyone to see all the information relative to every single package of Gragnano pasta from our pasta factory.
 
So don't panic and trust in us! Have a plate of pasta and enjoy!

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Pasta from Gragnano: still made in the old way and in your kitchen everyday

Today I want to give you some other learning about pasta and especially about the Pasta from Gragnano. I translated this article published on an italian newspaper and I hope this will give you a better idea of what we mean for high quality pasta when we speak about these product.

"It's easy to say pasta. In fact, is produced everywhere since long time. But if we are talking about the pasta from Gragnano, then we know that we are dealing with more than five hundred years of history and tradition.

It belongs to the category of dry pasta and is made in various shapes - now 340 - many of whom belong to the local tradition: the "candles", about two feet long, the "mafaldine" created in honor of Mafalda di Savoia, the " Tripolini "dedicated to the colonial conquest of the Libyan cities of Tripoli and the pasta Piedigrotta, inspired by the eponymous party in Naples. Anyway the most famous  shape remains the "Paccheri.

The historical texts and literature about the "Pasta from Gragnano PGI,"(deservedly received on the 28th August 2010) show that the production of "Pasta Gragnano" dates back to the XVI - XVII century and is closely linked to historical events that have occurred over the years in the territory of Gragnano. Here is the root of the typical product of our territory, the ancient town famous for the quality of the macaroni, located in the Valley of the Mills in the south of the Gulf of Naples. But what are the requirements before a product may dare the nominee?
In first place the Pasta from Gragnano PGI must be made solely from flour made from durum wheat. The mixture uses water from the springs of Mount Faito. The product must have the following characteristics: a homogeneous appearance with no white or black spots, air bubbles, cracks or cuts, mold, maggots or parasites. The section of fracture should be glassy, and the colour, a pale yellow.

And then a roughness which feature the use of bronze dies. At cooking, the "Pasta Gragnano" PGI has a firm texture and elasticity, homogeneity of cooking: uniform, holding a good and long cooking, a stickiness absent or imperceptible.
 

The production process is, after mixing and kneading, extruding through bronze dies, giving the desired shape. The procedure in bronze gives the pasta - even the smooth one - a rough surface that makes it particularly suitable to hold sauces and condiments.

The next stage of the production is the drying process, which varies depending on the shapes and in any case is at a temperature between 40 and 80 ° C for a period of between 6 and 60 hours in static cells to drain or tunnel where it circulates hot air. Completed the process of drying the paste is allowed to cool and within 24 hours should be wrapped, without being carried, to allow a perfect preservation."

Do you want to know more? Just write a question in the comments and I will involve the real people from Gragnano and from Pastificio dei Campi to answer.

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The twitter tale about pasta is following...

Here i recollected some sunday tweets from Giuseppe dei Campi, speaking this time about what makes Gragnano so special and the city of the pasta in Italy.

In my town the origin of pasta is lost in the centuries really! The name Gragnano come from Gens Grania, grain merchants in the 2' century BC who wanted to protect their businesses. You have to know that Gragnano has a number of unique characteristics respect other places ... tonight I'd like to explain you one, "The Mistral!".
That is the natural clock that tells to the people in Gragnano that's noon. Gragnano is set on a plateau that goes from an altitude of 250 meters on the sea (2 km) and reaches the height of 1250mt. Gragnano is located in the southeast summit of the Gulf of Naples between the mountains Lattari, extends from east to west and it's protected from all sides but open on one side only: the west, and at west of Gragnano there is the sea!

So imagine a whole green valley overlooking the sea on a plateau. Now, when the earth warms, heats the air, the warm air is lighter than the cold and tends to rise, leaving more space to the fresh air more heavy coming from the sea. This enters in Gragnano predictable and constant at noon!

This cools down and brings beneficial moisture from the sea to those who dry pasta each day out on the streets. And because this "fake" wind comes from the northwest in Gragnano we always called it "Mistral" (but is not). This is reversed at night when it takes away the moisture from Gragnano leaving it fresh and dry. When I was a boy, I used to notice it especially at night when I was coming back on a Vespa from dancing with friends. We could all smell the aroma and fragrance of pasta and even more entering in the city.
Especially the summer night breeze, nice and gentle, was carrying to the sea the smell of the work of Gragnano. The day after the same pasta, finally ready, would have take the sea to foreign markets, to the most 'beautiful kitchen and the best restaurants in the world.

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