Cipriani's pasta

Pasta, pasta. Dry pasta, fresh pasta. Pasta is without doubt the most important of our national foodstuffs, it has become the trademark of Italy, the one product that the whole world identifies with our country.
The vast pasta industry has a responsibility that is absolutely irreplaceable; it has the job of providing healthy nutrition at a low cost. The quality of manufactured plain pasta has improved considerably over recent years. Large scale manufacturers need no longer envy the quality of pasta produced by smaller home industries, so popular amongst spaghetti fans.
This is however, only true for dry, plain, durum wheat pasta.



Cipriani packages

A pasta roller

 The situation is rather different for egg pastas and especially for freshly made egg pasta, where the magic word "fresh" has helped open a market that has been flooded with poor quality products.
The pasta produced by small, home industry pasta makers has a humidity level that exceeds forty per cent and therefore it does not swell during cooking.
This kind of pasta is also full of bacteria, for which the humidity and egg content provide an ideal culture medium.
In addition to these drawbacks, the flour that is used is nearly always a soft wheat type and therefore has a low gluten content and poor nutritional values.
The rolling process is also very limited as the pasta is often simply passed once or twice under a roller or at times even under a press.

At Harry's Bar we have always made our own pasta and the experience we have gained over the years, has taught us that in egg pasta, there are three important elements. The flour must be made from durum wheat, the best grade eggs must be used and the pasta must be worked with care, rolled over and over again, never so much as to overheat it, but enough to give it that special quality. If all these precepts are followed, the pasta will have the essential characteristics of being both firm and soft.
Two attributes that would seem to be in opposition, but which real pasta lovers recognize perfectly.
If pasta of this class is then dried slowly at a low temperature, the resulting product will be unique.

Egg pasta drying on a telaio

This is the reason why we took the decision, first as a bet and then as a labor of love and conviction, to begin to manufacture our own pasta, the pasta that has conquered so many gourmets.
Different pasta shapes lend themselves to different dishes, but often the choice is either left to chance, to market forces or to individual eating habits.
Therefore when tagliolini or tagliardi are referred to, we mean the pasta produced by us.
The only pasta that should be made at home are ravioli and perhaps cannelloni, as far as the others are concerned, it is better to buy them in a shop.

Arrigo Cipriani