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2023 Author: Cody Thornton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-05-24 11:20
Rough, glassy, bronze drawn. They are the artisanal spaghetti made in Gragnano, "The city of macaroni" a handful of km from Naples, today the protagonists of Universal Judgment,.
Universal Judgment? Of course, the column that tells the gourmet side of food by emptying the shelves of specialized delicatessens and at the end expresses the verdict:
PARADISE, PURGATORY or HELL palatal?
You may wonder: doesn't Dissapore already have the Tasting Test? True, but that is a test of products for sale in supermarkets.
Here, on the other hand, we have eight selected pasta factories, eight steaming pots and an afternoon of eating unseasoned pasta, rigorously without salt, and cooked at timed intervals with extreme rigor.
What is not done for you, dear readers.
But before beatifying, redeeming or punishing the unfortunate person on duty, a very brief introduction on what Pasta di Gragnano PGI is and what it is not at all. All shut up, the specification reads as follows:
- Pasta must be produced within the Municipality of Gragnano only with durum wheat semolina and water from local aquifers.
- The extrusion of the dough must take place through bronze dies.
- The drying must take place at a temperature between 40 ° and 80 ° C. After cooling (within 24 hours) the pasta must be packaged, but without being moved, so that the product is preserved perfectly.
These are the protagonists, presented blindly, and in this order:
Pastificio Afeltra (500 g / 3, 00 euro)
Faella pasta factory (1 kg / 4.00 euro)
Pasta Gentile (500 g / 3, 50 euros)
Gold from Gragnano (500 g / 2, 50 euros)
Pasta Di Martino (500 g / 2.00 euro)
Pastificio Carmiano (500 g / 2, 75 euros)
Pastificio Dei Campi (500 g / 5, 00 euro)
The Gragnano pasta factory (500 g / 2, 75 euros)
PARADISE
GENTILE PASTA (cooking 12 minutes)
Round, the starch discharge is a treat for the palate.
Dark on the outside but tough to the bite, it is more seductive if cooked one minute less than the gold-on-blue printed tip.
No tingling, typical side effect of some artisanal formats, just lots of sweetness and absolute enjoyment.
PASTA FACTORY OF THE FIELDS (cooking 13 minutes)
Let's start with the packaging, very cool, the coolest of all.
Pasta of great caliber, also because it costs as much as a jewel (10 euros per kg!).
Elegant and rough at the same time, it has a marked sweet note and a finish that slightly prods the tongue.
The cooking fits perfectly, porous surface, right amount of starch released, acidity not received.
PASTA FACTORY FAELLA (cooking 10-12 minutes)
The only sample to have a very intense aroma of wheat, very rough to the touch, touching it gives physical pleasure.
Timing suggested by the package more than guessed, strong and multifaceted flavor, incisive toasted note.
Wonder.
PURGATORY
PASTA FACTORY AFELTRA (cooking 8-10 minutes)
8 minutes of cooking are few, pasta al chiodo is fine but with these semi-raw noodles you can only play in Shanghai.
Better to stick to the 10 minutes suggested by the package and throw the excesses of care in the pot.
Fizzy flavor for a badass pasta, medium roughness, consistency to improve.
THE PASTA FACTORY (cooking 10 minutes)
Cooking times respected to the picosecond, the puff is sweet, just the right silky.
I almost seem to hear the words of the elementary school teacher: "She is good, but she could do more".
CARMIAN PASTA (cooking 10-12 minutes)
It absorbs a lot of water, the increase in volume is significantly higher than in other samples.
It retains a certain roughness even when cooked, an almost metallic flavor, which tickles the tongue.
There is a fascination, but it's better if we are just friends.
HELL
GOLD OF GRAGNANO (cooking 8 minutes)
Some doubts about cooking - perhaps it should be drained first - flaccid and raw at the same time.
Wild aroma of raw semolina, but not very acid, barely perceptible starch supply.
Postponed to September.
PASTA DI MARTINO (cooking 8 minutes)
Better to throw them in the flames than in salt water, the pop brothers of the Pastificio dei Campi do not pass the test.
Pale, slimy, bland, and with a strange fermented aftertaste, these noodles manage to be raw (in places) and mushy together.
Doctor call a doctor.
Well, we have put our stomachs, pots and time into it, now we have some questions:
What, if any, are the great absentees?
Pasta al chiodo, al dente or completely cooked?
Ps. No spaghetti was mistreated during the tasting test, all the leftovers were transformed into a glorious pasta omelette.