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Not Italian
I use DeCecco with a light sauce and Ronzoni with a heavy sauce or when baked. Barilla's too soft. Sometimes I buy fresh pasta from an Italian store if I want something special. I make my own egg noodles. Those are easy. No complicated shapes or holes and I can make sizes the stores don't sell.
Recently found a new to me online site with Italian products also the pastas.
See https://vicofoodbox.com/en/product-c...food/pasta-en/
The shop ships to UK and EU countries. Still busy making a first order, so if anyone ordered from here in UK/EU and has some suggestions about what to buy?
Not Italian but pasta is a once a week dinner here.
Barilla tried few times very long ago but disliked it then. Usually we buy Grand'Italia the pastas with egg.
I love Garofolo products which have some unique shapes/cuts. Their pasta has that bronze-cut-exterior roughness also which allows sauces to adhere better in my opinion. I find the best selection at The Fresh Market if you're fortunate enough to have a store near you. https://www.pasta-garofalo.com/us/pr...emolina-pasta/
True Italians have jobs and lives to live. This is like saying "any true American makes their own burger patties" or "any true Frenchman makes their own foie gras" or "any true German makes their own sausages" - all most definitely not true.
That might be the 'best way' of doing it, but the world isn't populated exclusively by chefs and amateur wannabe chefs. Most people need to make compromises based on available time, resources and skillset.
True Italians have jobs and lives to live. This is like saying "any true American makes their own burger patties" or "any true Frenchman makes their own foie gras" or "any true German makes their own sausages" - all most definitely not true.
That might be the 'best way' of doing it, but the world isn't populated exclusively by chefs and amateur wannabe chefs. Most people need to make compromises based on available time, resources and skillset.
Also, for fresh pasta we can drive 55 miles to a great Italian restaurant. They have some entrees with fresh pasta, a few with dried pasta, some without any pasta. The best unusual and delicious salads around, as well as homemade gelatos.
I’d rather pay for expertly cooked food like that than try to DIY all the time, especially since we always combine errands or appointments with a meal in that town. Nothing wrong with supporting such businesses.
I will not pay someone to boil dried pasta and slap on some canned or bottled sauce, though! THAT is something I can and do more/better with right at home.
What's funny too is that both my mother and grandmother would whip up pasta pretty quickly the old fashioned way using a wooden board and large rolling pin. My grandmother especially I don't think ever saw a pasta machine much less owned one. I do know those days are gone forever but I wish I had a video of her making it.
I know exactly what you mean. My husband's aunt made pasta with a large rolling pin too. So thin you could hold it up to the light and see through it. Only then was slice it up into strips. She gave it as presents in paper shirt boxes.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Formerly Known As Twenty
This Italian uses both as she knows that dry pasta is better for some applications while fresh pasta works better for others.
So true! Marcella Hazan is very fussy on this point.
Location: By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea
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Quote:
Originally Posted by puginabug
I used to use Barilla always, until someone on here posted something about DeCecco. Tried it, loved it. We buy DeCecco almost exclusively now. The way it’s formed is different somehow from most mass produced pasta, giving it a rougher edge than others. So it holds your sauce better.
Buy yeah, it’s super expensive, comparatively. When I first tried DeCecco, I bought “squared spaghetti”. A bit thicker than regular sized spaghetti, but I personally fell in love with it! Naturally, it’s impossible to get that squared kind any more. We bought it maybe 5 times and now we can’t get it. So it’s thin spaghetti, penne, rigatoni, or linguini for us now.
I'm not Italian but Italian frequently and DeCecco's my go to. The difference you mention is it's extruded through bronze dies which give it texture that holds sauce better than the more commonly used plastic (I'd guess nylon) dies.
I love DeCecco, too, but will eat Barilla. DeCecco used to make a shape called funghini (no. 96) and stopped selling it in the US. They won't ship to the US and wow, how I miss that little shape.
The person who liked the squared spaghetti might like spaghetti rigati, which is by Barilla but has a really good mouth feel and holds sauce nicely.
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