Fresh pasta culinary tradition

Once upon a time, women and mothers of families delighted in kneading fresh pasta to warm cold winter days using precious home-grown ingredients. Especially on Sundays, the day of the week when work in the fields stopped and families would gather in front of a fireplace waiting for their passionately prepared lunch to be served. Today, fresh pasta can be prepared at home or purchased from excellent craft workshops trying to preserve thehigh quality and the good tradition.

Handmade fresh pasta is obtained by mixing several ingredients such as wheat flour or durum wheat semolina and water. And if you also add egg to the dough, you get the egg pasta. Sometimes wholemeal flour is also used to obtain its variant of wholemeal pasta. The dough is always the same and different shapes can be obtained, namely orecchiette, noodles, maltagliatietc., and with different names also in relation to the territory of production.

Take the "maccaronara"a type of fresh pasta typical of the cuisine of the area to the north of Basilicata. A true gastronomic speciality of an ancient culinary tradition of the Mediterranean basin, similar to spaghetti with a quadrangular shape that has been handed down from generation to generation.

Nutritional aspects

Fresh pasta is characterised by a slow release of glucose in the blood without causing sharp blood sugar spikes and ensuring the body's long-term energy. In particular, fresh pasta made with wholemeal flour or semolina being richer in fibre not only provides a greater sense of satiety but also regularises intestinal transit. It may be suitable for those suffering from cardiovascular problems due to the complete absence of cholesterol. On the other hand, it is not recommended for those suffering from gluten intolerance as it contains gluten and is therefore not suitable for coeliacs. It is also not recommended for those suffering from colitis.

Preparation

The dough is made from durum wheat semolina, sometimes also from wheat flour, and water. In a variant, as in this case, whole-wheat flour is used. The dough is rolled out and cut with the help of a special wooden rolling pin which has grooves of about 1 cm. After light pressure on the puff pastry, the typical spaghetti cut is obtained, which is then pulled off by hand first on one side and then on the other. All that remains is to bake it and bring it to the table to the delight of the diners.