Sfoglini Pasta, Premium Artisan Pasta From The Hudson Valley
The current lineup of beautiful pasta shapes is below. Sfoglini works with local flour mills to source organic, non-GMO, whole-grain flour. If you love pasta enough to want the best, take a look at Sfoglini† (sfo-LEE-nee), a line made in the Hudson Valley of New York State. Like the finest artisan pastas from Italy, the flour is mixed into a dough. The dough is then extruded through bronze dies and slow-dried. Watch pasta being extruded in the video below. We agree. Try some for yourself, and give them as gifts. While an individual box of this exciting-looking pasta is a nice little gift, there’s a Pasta of The Month Club that gives the joy of great pasta every month. > Check out all of the Sfoglini shapes in the next section. > The different types of pasta: a glossary. Sfoglini specializes in short-cut pasta or short shapes, as opposed to the long form, ribbon, or strand pasta that includes everything you can twirl around your fork—from the most narrow, angel hair to the widest, pappardelle (plus lasagna sheets). Sfoglini shapes are works of art. Not your basic elbows and butterflies. Check up this lineup, which lets you make creative and interesting pasta dishes, and visit the website to see each shape. Organic Wheat Pasta However, if you appreciate fine food, the quality and taste are well worth the cost. The line is carried at specialty food stores, gourmet food markets, and online. For the full line, head to the Sfoglini website. Scroll down to watch pasta being extruded. Note #1: The video shows different shapes of pasta. While it may appear that one bronze plate makes all of the shapes, this is a composite video: Each is made with its own specially-shaped bronze die. Note #2: The video has a lively soundtrack, so turn it down in advance if you wish. |
|
|
________________ *Semolina is the coarsely ground and granular endosperm of durum wheat. These round golden kernels are the base of most American, and all Italian, dry pasta. Semolina is granular like sugar, not powdery like most other flours. Homemade fresh pasta is generally not made from semolina, but from general-purpose flour that is lower in gluten. Preparing semolina dough requires industrial mixers or several hours of kneading the granular mass. As a result, homemade pasta cooks much more quickly, often in half the time, and can overcook easily if the pot is not watched. In general, properly cooked, top-quality commercial artisan pasta is as good or better than what most people can make at home. †A sfoglina (feminine form, plural sfogline) or sfoglino (masculine form, plural sfoglini) is someone who makes sfoglia, sheets of fresh pasta. A sfoglina is historically seen as a middle-aged woman who rolls and stretches out the dough with a rolling pin (mattarello) on a large wooden pastry board (taglieri). Here’s more about it. At Sfoglini, two men, the sfoglini, carry on the tradition: Sfoglini chef Steve Gonzalez and creative director Scott Ketchum. ‡‡The cascatelli shape was developed by Dan Pashman, who switched the “e” at the end the word for waterfalls, cascatelle, to “i” to conform with the endings of other pasta shapes. Here’s more about it.
|