what is the secret of a great pasta?

There are some features that a kind of pasta can be called a great pasta.

Pasta "al dente"

One of the most important thing is pasta must stay firm after cooking. But what does it really mean? We call that feature as "tenuta in cottura" (in italian) as a sort of pasta resistance in cooking.

As you know every kind of pasta has a specific cooking time, that is, 7 minutes, 10 minutes, etc. : if we drain pasta according to the suggest of producer, a good pasta should be firm or better a little bit "raw", that is "al dente", which meaning is "a little bit raw" when we taste it among the teeth (al dente = among the teeth); however if we forget to drain pasta in time and pasta continue to cook some minutes more, a good pasta should not turn into a sticky "mass".

Roughness

Another quality of a good pasta is its roughness. It is obtained with bronze drawn method, that is, bronze dies that give greater roughness to the pasta.

The roughness of pasta can be seen by sight, felt by touching and mainly tasted when we put it in our mouth: a more intense flavor and more intense and better adherence of sauces and condiments.