Italian Pasta Facts

Spaghetti, also known as pasta, is one of the Western cuisine varieties that Chinese people are most likely to accept. As the legal raw material for spaghetti, durum wheat is the hardest wheat variety, characterized by high density, high protein content, and high gluten strength. Therefore, it has a golden yellow appearance, cooks well, and has good texture.Hence, authentic ingredients are crucial for achieving excellent texture in spaghetti. In addition, the sauce used to mix with the pasta is also quite important. The flour used for spaghetti differs from that used for making noodles in China; it uses a "hard durum wheat," which prevents it from becoming mushy after prolonged cooking. Furthermore, its shapes vary widely, including ordinary straight noodles as well as spiral, curved tube, butterfly-shaped, and shell-shaped types among many others.

Authentic Italian pasta typically has a chewy texture, meaning it is cooked to an al dente state where it feels slightly firm when bitten.For Chinese people who are used to yuanshen noodles, such a texture can be quite unfamiliar. Then its shape varies, with varieties including screw-shaped, bent tube-shaped, butterfly-shaped, and shell-shaped pasta, among hundreds of others. Authentic Italian pasta is usually al dente, meaning it's cooked to a slightly firm texture that feels somewhat hard when bitten.For Chinese people used to youbunoodle, this is generally not something they are accustomed to eating.