Pasta secca and pasta fresca

The division of Italian pasta into secca and fresca is a division of method, of raw material and of geography, and it is recorded as such in Oretta Zanini de Vita's Encyclopedia of Pasta. Pasta fresca belongs to the household and to the rolling pin, and its home is the egg-enriched dough of the centre and north, above all Emilia-Romagna. Pasta secca belongs to the workshop and to the drying frame, and its home is the durum wheat of the south, with Campania and Puglia among its long-established centres of production.

Pasta fresca is made from soft wheat flour, usually bound with eggs, rolled into a sheet and cut or filled by hand. It is made to be cooked within hours, or at most within a day or two, and it was traditionally a dish of the household, prepared for the table and for feast days. The tagliatelle, tortellini and lasagne of Emilia-Romagna belong to this tradition, and in these dishes the character of the sheet, its thinness, its porosity and its tenderness, is the whole point of the preparation. Pasta secca is made from durum wheat semolina and water, without eggs in its classic form. The dough is stiff, and it is extruded through dies or shaped by hand, then dried until it keeps for long periods. Because it keeps, it travels, and it could be stored, sold and carried across distances in a way that fresh pasta could not. The shapes of the south, among them spaghetti, maccheroni, penne and rigatoni, are products of this method, and the die determines the form and the surface that the sauce will meet. The two are therefore not two grades of one product. They differ in grain, in the proportion of liquid, in texture and in the sauces they carry. Fresh egg pasta is soft and absorbent and suits butter, meat ragù and delicate fillings. Dried semolina pasta is firm and resistant to the tooth, and it suits olive oil, tomato, vegetables and fish. The old regional pairing of each pasta with the fat and the produce of its own territory follows from this, and it is a matter of the table before it is a matter of the market. The geographical line between the two should be stated with care. Zanini de Vita's survey shows that the south has its own fresh pastas, made by hand from semolina and water, such as orecchiette and cavatelli, and that the north has its own dried traditions. The distinction is therefore not between north and south as territories, but between a dough bound with egg and rolled, and a dough of semolina and water, shaped by hand or by die and often dried. A cook who keeps this in view will read regional recipes accurately and will not substitute one pasta for the other without altering the dish.

The pairing of each pasta with its sauce follows from the texture of the dough. Fresh egg pasta is soft and absorbent, and it takes butter, meat ragù and delicate fillings, which cling to the porous sheet and are carried by it rather than set against it. Dried semolina pasta is firm and resistant to the tooth, and it meets olive oil, tomato, vegetables and fish, where the sauce coats a smooth or ridged surface determined by the die. The old regional habit of matching each pasta to the fat and the produce of its own territory rests on this difference of texture, and a cook who exchanges one pasta for the other alters the balance of the dish.