Drying pasta

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I’ve been making a lot of fresh non-egg pasta for years, with just semolina and water, no salt or oil. Most of it is fettuccine made with an Atlas/Marcato pasta machine. The question I have relates to slow drying methods. If you just hang it up on one of those pasta racks, the noodles will curve and get more brittle, because they dry too quickly; the shrinking outer surface has to deform or crack because the core remains damp. Also, if left on the rack’s rods, the outer surface at the bend dries faster than the part touching the rods. Again, the shrinking part cracks to relieve the physical stresses. Understood.

I read somewhere where a fellow buried fresh pasta in coarse salt, sealed the container and dried it that way, but have no details. So far, the best method here, with the current humidity in the room around 22%RH, is to briefly dry the separated noodles on a rack, so the cut edges dry a bit. In one to three minutes, they get laid flat on a food-grade plastic screen, inside a metal box dehydrator, on shelves. The dehydrator is turned off.

When the humidity gets very high, near 90% RH, the pasta rests for 2 hours so the outer surface and inner part of the pasta equilibrate moisture. After that, the dehydrator, basically a metal box, gets opened and allowed to vent for a couple minutes. Then, it’s closed up and allowed to get humid again. Rest>vent/dry>repeat. This works ok, as the noodles have wonderful texture cooked, but they still are prone to slight curving.

Sure, I can make nests, but I’ve seem homemade artisanal pasta in neat, flat, straight strips. I’m wondering how they do it.

We’re not talking about high volume commercial methods, with controlled drying rooms and extruded pasta. There must be some slow-dry method which keeps the noodles flat. Pasta making is typically done during the cold, rainy months when being indoors is a blessing. The lack of oil and eggs means the pasta can store for long periods, if dried. The product remains superior to commercial pasta, even the bronze-die, low temperature stuff.

Anyone know how to dry pasta slowly and flat?

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Every fresh pasta I’ve ever dried for hoefully extended shelf life will almost ALWAYS curl/bend or crack, for the reasons you mention. There’s a youtuber, Alex, who did a whole series about making dry, extruded pasta and the challenges of really drying it. His main takeaway: This is a commercial, industrial practice and simply can’t be reasonably replicated by the average, or even above average, home cook.

Here’s his whole series on it:

fwiw, I’ve had the most success letting them dry on a pasta rack/over the back of a chair/draped on coat handers. They will curl. Some will break. After about 24 hours, I packed them, gently, in the biggest tupperware I had, and they kept nicely for several weeks. My partner did spinach fettuchini and got similar results, though after about 2 weeks, she noticed mold on the last portion of it and pitched it. It will never EVER by totally dry like commercial pasta, where its shelf life is years.

Making fresh pasta is relatively easy enough that, if we want it, we’ll take the time to make it an hour ahead, or a day or two (wrapped up tight in plastic wrap, it will keep in the fridge in a dough ball for a many days. We just cut enough off the ball and roll that out while the water boils.) And if we’re doing something that’s better with dried pasta, like cacio e pepe or carbonara, we’ll just use commercial.

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I can’t suggest tweaks to the drying procedure, but have purchased dry pasta containing eggs for half a century. If you fear fresh eggs, you could use powdered whole eggs.

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I’ll respectfully disagree with part of that statement. I’ve dried pasta and had it last for several years, sealed in a silicone-gasketed box. This involves three variables: 1. The pasta must be thoroughly dried at low heat and low humidity. (A dehyrator gets used here.) 2. The dry pasta must be sealed tightly to avoid absorbing moisture from the air. 3. The pasta must have no egg or oils to go rancid. (This can be overcome by thorough drying and sealing airtight with oxygen removed. There are several ways to do this. )

Here, the final dry is done in a dehydrator, when the ambient humidity is under 20% at 85°F. By this time, the pasta will not deform further because the water content is very low and the noodles are hard.

I’ve watched Alex’s videos and they’re a lot of fun! I also have a good idea why he fails, or, at least, have a dichotomous chart to find the solution. Extruded, commercial pasta is a different animal. There is, are ways for the slow drying of pasta from roller-type cutters, I’ve seen it sold by small-scale producers. Maybe I should read labels and contact some of these folks, see if they’ll share their secrets. I’m really curious about the hermetically-sealed, buried in coarse salt method.

Her are some examples of what’s happened lately:

Pasta dried too quickly because I forgot to turn off the dehydrator fan during one of the cycles …Doh!:

pasta1
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This was still much less brittle and curly then when I tried drying on a rack. Rack drying/open air drying doesn’t work right now. With wood stove heat, the humidity is around 20–22% RH, and that results in too quick a dry.

With a much slower drying method, including resting periods in a closed Stainless steel dehydrator (a box), the final product is looking like this:

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It’s much straighter, with essentially no breakage. Some of the bends are just from laying the pasta down in a less than perfect way. Some curling is likely due to the sides touching the mesh dry a bit slower.

I should mention that, as a scientist, I’ve access to a lot of gadgets. I’m using a Thermo-hygrometer to keep an eye on what’s going on inside the “box”; a remote probe lets me know when it’s time to vent or rest.

Maybe a layer of parchment paper, above and below the noodles, will help equilibrate the dry. next time!

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Drying pasta can be a delicate dance, especially without eggs or oil in the mix. Your method of using a dehydrator in a controlled environment is pretty nice

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Thanks! So far, it’s the best method; but the dehydrator spends the vast amount of time off, like a metal box with shelves. The small air vents in the dehydrator door do not allow a quick-dry. The last batch was thin spaghetti, and it came out great.

I still want to try burying the pasta in a regular box, layered in coarse salt. The salt would surely prevent mold or spoilage, and, in theory, keep the pasta’s shape. I’d close the box, to prevent quick drying. I do have 10 pounds of coarse sea salt on hand, for the next trial.

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Could you use a dowel and hang your pasta so that gravity keeps it straight? I know that might create some issues if you have a short dehydrator, but even an initial hang might give you some extra rigidity. Your pasta does look pretty straight by the way and from the loops at the end I think you might already be hanging? Were did you find your time cycles for drying from? I know that commercial dryers have “recipes” for each type of pasta shape, was wondering if you had any access to such.

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Welcome mikeycost!

The pasta goes from the cutters onto a drying rack, composed of plastic dowels. This is only to get the cut surfaces a little dry, minutes only. Hanging pasta for long causes it to dry too quickly, and that’s what causes curling and brittle or fractured pasta. If left on ANY kind of dowel or rack, the pasta will almost certainly crack and get brittle. The surface of the pasta touching the rack/support will dry slower than, say, the upper part exposed to air. The top shrinks and can’t compress the part touching the dowels, so it curls or cracks.

Even on a mesh shelf, if the outside layer of pasta dries, it shrinks. The core, being damp, does not shrink. Thus, the outside surface bends, cracks, or both. The trick is to slow everything way down, allowing the outside surface to absorb moisture from the interior; the equilibrate to roughly the same moisture. If the pasta dries very slowly, but too quick to grow mold, the interior and exterior keep approximately the same level of moisture; there’s little to no stress.

I don’t have time cycles, per se. There are too many variables involved: what is the house’s humidity, how much pasta is on the dehydrator shelves, etc. Often, I use a tool, a hygrometer, for monitoring the humidity inside the dehydrator (which is turned off). A probe sits inside the dehydrator, on one of the shelves. When the humidity goes way up, I leave it for a while, 15–40 minutes, so the pasta has even moisture throughout. Then, the dehydrator fan gets turned on with the door open/off until the air drops to around 20% RH (relative humidity). Every thing is shut off and the dehydrator door closed/put back on. After a while, it takes a long time for the humidity to climb and the dehydrator is left closed for about 24 hours. Very slow air exchange happens through vents in the unit. The final dry either has the door of the dehydrator off for 24 hours (if the house’s air is below 24%RH, or, if the house is above this (too humid), the dehydrator gets turned on at around 80-90°F. However, this latter situation doesn’t happen very often. Most pasta making happens during the winter, when the house is heated with a wood stove and the air is very dry.

Commercial techniques will always be far different than what one does at home. First, they’re trying to get as quick output as possible. Secondly, because they’re drying large volumes of pasta, the humidity in their chambers can be much higher. Even the surrounding room(s) will get more humid if the moisture isn’t vented outside.

Because I’m drying at room temperature (or slightly above), heat does not remove flavor compounds in the semolina/semola. Because it’s not extruded, the pasta is quicker to cook and more silky, tender, even when al dente.