Fresh versus dry: chefs' pasta preference hinges on how they use their noodles

Spaghetti isubiquitous, found at roadside truck stops and fine dining establishments alike. Other Italian-style pastas come in dozens of shapes and sizes, from small "peppercorn" acini di pepe to ears, bowtiesand a very wide range of strings,ribbons and tubes.

Pasta can be freshly-made or come asthe traditional dry version, available in cellophane bags and windowed boxes on grocery storeshelves.

Many restaurants in the region are making their own, or using trade-made fresh pasta to appeal to customers with increasingly-educated pasta palates.

Pasta primer

Dry pasta, the most popular type, is made from durum wheat that's ground into fine semolina and mixed with water to make a paste. The paste is then rolled or forced through an extruder into strands of linguine or striated tubes of rigatoni. It then is dried at low temperatures over a long period of time to preserve the shape while removing moisture.

There's a good chance even your imported Italian dry pasta has a Canadian connection:Canada is a global leader indurum wheatproduction.

On the other hand, fresh pasta's soft noodles are made with three or four ingredients: flour, eggs, salt and sometimes olive oil. Though some fresh pasta omits the eggs, they contribute to a more pronounced flavour than dry pasta.

There are two other notable differences between the two types beside flavour: fresh pasta has a relatively short lifespan before it dries out, and it costs more than traditional dry pasta.

Different, not better

One type of pasta isn't better than another: they are usually used differently, however. There are schools of thought as to the sauces that go best with each type, especially in traditional Italian dishes.

Dry noodles, and especially those with slight striations and ridges are often used for heavier, meatier dishes like garganelli boscaiola (with pancetta and mushroom sauce), bucatini all'Amatriciana (guanciale and red pepper flakes) and penne puttanesca (chili peppers, garlic, capers, black olives, anchovies).

The exception is the meaty Bolognese sauce that istraditionally made with some milk or cream and served withfresh pasta noodles.

Dishes that shine with fresh-made noodles are usually creamy, cheesy sauces like carbonara (with pancetta and eggs), Alfredo (butter and cream) and, my favourite, the ancient Roman dish cacio e pepe (Pecorino cheese and black pepper).

Of course, these "rules" are generalizations only: if you are making a bowl of pasta, use whatever noodles you have at hand and whatever sauce you like. Taste is subjective!

Who's making fresh pasta?

While it is more labour and time intensive, a number of restaurants in this area make pasta noodles in their kitchens. Here's a selection of just a few of them, with a reminder that other restaurants also serve fresh pasta that they buy ready-made from a trade supplier.

At271 West,owner Zeljko Loncar says his restaurant uses two extruders to make several fresh pastas, including spinach-ricotta ravioli, penne pesto and linguine puttanesca he's done so since he opened the restaurant a decade ago and says his customers appreciate freshly made pasta. And the staff do as well:

"There's an option to buy the pasta, but handmade is handmade," Loncar says. "And it gives our employees extra hours. Everybody needs hours, so it works for us."

A few blocks along King Street from 271 West,La Cucinamakes a half-dozen or so pastas including seafood spaghettini and mushroom fettuccine. They often feature a thicker spaghetti, spaghettoni, which I quite like.

In north Waterloo,Levettomakes several pastas including rigatoni, aglio e olio trecce (a helix-like ribbon), spaghetti, bucatini (my favourite) with the hole in the middle, and tagliatelle Florentine with spinach and mushrooms. Owner Karen Elmer-Hammond says in normal times the kitchen will make about 60 eight-ounce portions of spaghetti every other day.

Cambridge'sAmici Restauranthas a dozen homemade pastas on the menu including carbonara, seafood linguine and a fettuccine with bacon, mushrooms and roasted red peppers in a white wine-ros sauce. They also have a potato dumpling with either a rag or Gorgonzola cheese sauce.

Del's Italian Kitchenhas a large extruder to create its current takeaway pasta dishes: a butternut ravioli, sausage and pepper penne, penne in Parmesan-cream sauce with veg, chicken or seafood and classic spaghetti and meatballs but in this case, it's a single large polpetta. They also have gluten-free options.

Finally and not to muddy the pasta waters on what sauce goes where gnocchi should get a mention because it straddles the line between pasta and dumpling with its good amount of flour and either potato or ricotta cheese in the dough. Severalvenues make the little elliptical shaped morsels (the word means "knot," as in wood, in Italian) that date to the Roman Empire.

Rusticochef and co-owner Simon Mathias makes gnocchi every other day and prepares sauces for them in a couple of ways.He saysthey have gluten-free options.

"We love gnocchi here. It's super versatile," Mathias says. "One item on our menu is a braised beef gnocchi with red wine, tomato sauce and beef that's really rich. The tender gnocchi really soaks up the flavours, or it can be lighter with pesto and white wine without any protein. It's a nice little meal."

Simple pasta principles

Restaurants might have European-manufactured pasta extruders with bronze or brass dies and commercial pasta makers costing thousands of dollars; however,you can maketraditional Italian pasta simply and without a machine.

Build a flour pyramid and then indent a well in the top where you pour in eggs, olive oil and salt. Combine the ingredients to form a pliable dough, flatten it to a thick disk, wrap in plastic wrap and let it rest at room temperature for20-30 minutes.

Cut into large chunks and, using lots of flour on a clean counter, roll the dough flat to about2 mm depth(about the thickness of aloonie $1coin). Trim the dough into a rectangle and,starting on one of the shortsides of the rectangle, roll it into a tight log.

Cut this rolled doughlog crosswise into coins or checkers, about 3 mm wide for fettuccine and 6 mm wide for tagliatelle. Unfurl each circle into individual strips and presto: pasta!

Pasta All'uovoRecipe

Here's a more structured recipe that I like to use:

Pasta All'uovo (egg dough)

Ingredients
2 cups (280 grams) all-purpose flour
2 large whole eggs
4 egg yolks
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon salt

Method
Combine whole eggs, egg yolks, olive oil and salt and beat together lightly. Make a flour pyramidon a clean counter-top and then indent a well in the top. Pour in the egg mixture and slowly stir the flour in from the edges to form a wet dough. Scrape up any remaining flour and work to combine the ingredients into a loose ball. Knead the dough with the heel of your hand, turning it frequently until smooth and pliable. Add flour if it is too wet; add water if too dry.

Flatten the dough into a thick disk, wrap in plastic wrap and rest at room temperature for 30 minutes. Cut the dough into pieces, roll into a inch elliptical shape and start passing the dough through a pasta machine, either electric or manual (if you are not using a machine, roll out pieces of the dough and cut into rectangles; roll the rectangles and cut against the width in the desired size, fettuccine or otherwise).

After each pass through the machine, fold in both ends of the dough so they meet, roll into a long shape again and pass through the machine. Repeat and adjust settings until you can just see your hand through the thin dough. Change the setting on the pasta machine to cut fettuccine, for example. Lightly shower the cut noodles with flour, arrange into small "nests" and cover with a kitchen towel until ready to drop into boiling water.