Now available in the U.S., Maestri Pastai is bringing their high-quality artisan durum wheat pasta of U.S based foodservice operators. Located in Mercato San Severino, Campania, Italy, with experienced master pasta makers from several generations, Maestri Pastai can be translated into “Masters of the Pasta”.
Maestri Pastai pasta is bronze drawn, at a low and constant temperature between ten and fifteen hours, depending on the shape. Made with the finest durum wheat semolina and cold-kneaded water, Maestri Pastai controls every single die, piece, and batch of pasta produced, offering a truly hand-made pasta.
Maestri Pastai also offers certified organic Durum Wheat pasta. A natural evolution of traditional research for raw materials of finest quality and careful selection that allows Maestri Pastai Bio organic product line to present a diversified offering of organic semolina pasta, not limited to the modern organic durum on the market. MAESTRI PASTAI Bio also includes a special selection of ancient grains, both in the white and in the whole wheat version. Maistri Pastai’s durum wheat pasta is produced with cold dough, bronze drawing and a slow drying method at low temperature that does not damage the gluten, facilitating digestibility and assimilability.
All of Maestri Pastai’s pastas are marked by intense flavor, transferring the consistency and nutrient richness of the grains which have not undergone genetic modifications, maintaining all the nutritional and organoleptic features, typical of a higher quality product. A processing carried out according to the true artisan method, genuine ingredients and a pasta facility with quality control under the supervision of the experienced hands of the Maestri Pastai team who have been creating pasta for generations.
Today as well as in the past, the pasta is produced using the same procedure that is only and exclusively using bronze dies and slow drying. Bronze dies (stamps) are the shapes, which the selected semolina dough passes through thus creating the pasta shape (Penne-Spaghetti-Rigatoni and so on). Thanks to the bronze these very same dies are made of, the pasta is conferred that roughness which it is retained in the process of slow drying. The characteristic of bronze drawn pasta is that the pasta retains a rough, coarse and porous surface even after the cooking. This results in both long and short pasta cuts that are ideal for holding an assortment of delicious sauces and seasonings.
Slow drying is also crucial as it serves as a fundamental phase in the pasta production procedure, because it determines the quality of these pastas. The pasta is dried in static cells for a period that ranges from 20 to 56 hours, depending on the particular pasta shape, at a temperature that never exceeds 55 degrees. This is an ancient procedure recalling the time when the pasta was dries by natural ventilation as the low temperature do not brake down the gluten molecule that otherwise is altered at a temperature of 78 degrees. Drying at a low temperature for several hours ensures that the drying flour matrix forms with large open pores, thereby yielding more easily digested carbohydrates, and a pasta shape that will absorb water with great efficiency while cooking, swelling up to several times its dry size after boiling. Furthermore, this slow drying process at a low temperature favors a chemical reaction that lowers the pH of the pasta itself, giving it a unique and delicious flavor.
Described as “Artisanal Pasta” due to its perfect fusion of artisanal wisdom by Maestri Pastai’s masteries and the selection of the best grains to obtain quality semolina, delivers a taste to match perfectly with the simplest of sauces.
