A question for our Italian members
By Fleur
@Fleura (35055)
United Kingdom
January 29, 2022 2:52am CST
On a recent shopping trip I was looking for some dried pasta, and on the shelf next to the ‘regular’ stuff I came across this - bronze die pasta. More expensive of course.
At first I was really confused because I had no idea what it was talking about, I even thought that perhaps the phrase ‘bronze die pasta’ was something in Italian! 
But after reading the back of the packet more carefully I found that pasta made using a bronze die (rather than Teflon) is supposed to create pasta that holds the sauce better. More specifically, ‘on a microscopic level, bronze dies extrude a pasta that is rougher with far more surface area for sauce to cling to.’
Intrigued, I bought some and ate it with a sauce of smoked salmon and cream. The meal was very tasty, but to be honest I couldn’t detect any difference between this pasta and the ‘ordinary’ type. Maybe I didn’t test it with a suitable sauce.
Has any one else tried it? Does it taste better or hold the sauce better? @LadyDuck you are my MyLot authority on Italian topics!
All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2022.
But after reading the back of the packet more carefully I found that pasta made using a bronze die (rather than Teflon) is supposed to create pasta that holds the sauce better. More specifically, ‘on a microscopic level, bronze dies extrude a pasta that is rougher with far more surface area for sauce to cling to.’
Intrigued, I bought some and ate it with a sauce of smoked salmon and cream. The meal was very tasty, but to be honest I couldn’t detect any difference between this pasta and the ‘ordinary’ type. Maybe I didn’t test it with a suitable sauce.
Has any one else tried it? Does it taste better or hold the sauce better? @LadyDuck you are my MyLot authority on Italian topics!
All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2022.8 people like this
8 responses
@LadyDuck (502573)
• Italy
29 Jan 22
I think that this is a sort of "scam". All Italian pasta should be "trafilata al bronzo", that means that the dough has been pressed through a bronze die. The reason is simple, you could never arrive to press a firm dough through a Teflon die, it would break the die. My grandmother had a "manual" bronze die and I remember that it was so hard to turn the lever that I could never arrive to do this when I was a kid. Pasta with a rough surface keeps the sauce better, egg pasta with a rough surface is the best to be used with creamy sauces. I would have used rough eggs tagliatelle with a smoked salmon and cream sauce, the same kind of pasta we use for the Bolognese sauce. Italians do not eat spaghetti Bolognese, this is only for tourists. Spaghetti are never rough enough to keep the Bolognese sauce and spaghetti are ALL "bronze die".
5 people like this
@DaddyEvil (174558)
• United States
29 Jan 22
Oh, now that's interesting. I always thought the shape of the pasta was what was looked for when wanting certain tastes in a pasta dish.
3 people like this
@LadyDuck (502573)
• Italy
29 Jan 22
@DaddyEvil The shape is important, but also the kind of wheat used, the fact that the dough is made with only wheat and water or also eggs. We Italians are picky with pasta.
3 people like this
@much2say (57760)
• Los Angeles, California
29 Jan 22
I "think" I can tell the difference between cheap pasta vs decent pasta . . . but I don't know that I'd be sensitive to detecting sauce clinginess. For the most part I just love pasta dishes, so I'd gobble it up regardless 
. Oh I'll bet your cream smoked salmon sauce was divine!
. Oh I'll bet your cream smoked salmon sauce was divine!1 person likes this
@DaddyEvil (174558)
• United States
29 Jan 22
I'm not Italian, but I know that style of pasta is called "rotini" and Pretty and I use it when we make Pesto with pasta or Cheddar and Broccoli pasta because it holds more sauce than most other types of pasta.
Now you know everything I know about pasta. (I'd be an embarrassment to Italians.
)
)1 person likes this
