To dry pasta at low temperature: why?

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1) drying processes are dehydrating processes, that Simoneton rank among those that retain the properties of the food.

2) If drying is done at more than 70° most positive energies are lost.

From this follows that is vital to dry at low temperature, and by now most of the paste is dried at high temperatures.

In large pasta pasta is dried in three or four hours, with temperatures up to 130° c.

The savings in time and cost is significant, but this is totally at the expense of nutritional quality.

In addition to what can be deduced from signs of Simoneton, we can add that by drying at high temperature important nutrients are lost.

Already at 80° you have 40% less vitamin B1 and 53% less vitamin B2.

Also the content of Lysine and methionine, two essential amino acids, decreases significantly.

In addition, starting from 60°, it changes the structure of the starch jelly, it becomes harder and harder to digest, though not overcook pasta is al dente, so that consumers think it's of better quality.

Another important aspect to consider is that the high temperature dried pasta is a dead product, with energy and vital activity.

A low-temperature dried pasta instead remains alive.

As with flour and water in the right quantities is a fermentation that led, can lead to bread, even in dry pasta is a "maturing", a slight and subtle fermentation and acidification which form part of its flavor and its organoleptic qualities.

Overall it can be said that a low temperature dried pasta is a natural product and therefore her cooking, like a bread, will have a point and a good time, with a lower tolerance than pasta.

But what happens with the cooking of pasta? It takes place approximately 100°

We have no certain indications, but we've seen, the studies of Simoneton, that baking doesn't always mean loss of quality.

The burghul, for example, increases his energy with cooking and the dough is made of wheat and this can be seen as "broken" more finely.

In this case, then, who destroys the quality is not firing, but drying.

You can also include the importance of cooking al dente, which is part of the Italian culinary art.

The pasta preserves a heart where the temperature remained lower and warm water has penetrated less and this will probably give the dough a higher vibration than the pasta "sheet".

Bibliography:
The dough: production technologies, qualitative and nutritional aspects/Wild D.ssa Elisa
Studies of chemical and nutritional parameters on dried pasta, low and high temperature/cereals Studies Unit – National Institute of nutrition
Research done by prof Cubadda of the National Institute of nutrition
Research done by prof. Resmini, of the University of Milan, Department of food science and technology
Research done by the C.N.R dott.sa Pellegrino