Fresh vs Dry

According to this site, there are some basic rules for a wheat/flour/water combo to be considered pasta. In fact, there is a law (580 of 04/07/67) = if there is such a thing, that common wheat flour is a no-no - pasta is made ONLY with durum wheat flour. Anything else is fraudulent. The standard measure for manufacturing dry pasta is 70/30 (flour -water).

My question is how is the quality judged? According to the site, and to Delia Smith, it's the origin of durum wheat. The better the source of wheat, the better the pasta. And then, a loving process of processing the hard wheat to semi-milled flour

". It began with growing the highest-quality hard wheat, and the name given to this specific type of wheat was durum, from the Latin, meaning hard. After the pasta maker had purchased exactly the right grain, the next important stage was finding the right miller to mill the grain to a certain precise specification – and not to a fine, powdery flour but to something called semolina, which, in Italian, means semi-milled and is quite unlike flour, as semolina is made up of tiny, coarse, corn-coloured granules with sharp edges."

Delia Smith of course tells us there's no point going crazy over fresh pasta. It doesnt necessarily tastes better. But then, she cautions, get the good quality dried stuff.

"The only fresh pastas I ever buy are ravioli, stuffed pasta shapes or lasagne sheets, which are, I think, of a far better quality than most of the dried packs. Once you taste quality dried pasta, it will be very hard for you to return to the industrially produced alternatives."

And what are good quality... D.S says look out for pasta di semola di grano duro – durum wheat semolina pasta. And of course her final words of wisdom

"The other modern misconception is to serve more sauce than pasta. Good pasta should be enjoyed for itself, with a small amount of concentrated sauce used to merely dress it."

I am now thinking of Chinese noodles. With the exception of long life noodles and vermicelli and some minor varieties, I think fresh noodles are good noodles. And nothing more warming than an over the top saucy noodle dish like laksa where the sauce/gravy and noodle go into a swimming whirl of flour/water nirvana

The Etruscan Evidence

Just when I thought the debate has ended, the thread has split into another argument that the italians had their own pasta by way of the Etruscan heritage- According to this site

"Well Marco Polo might have done amazing things on his journey but bringing pasta to Italy was not one of them, it was already there in Polo's time. There is some evidence of an Etrusco-Roman noodle made from the same durum wheat as modern pasta called "lagane" (origin of the modern word for lasagna)"

The author adds that the dish was baked, not boiled... so it's another group of invaders, the Arabs:

"Like so much of southern Italian life, the Arab invasions of the 8th century heavily influenced the regional cuisine and is the most accepted theory for the introduction of pasta."

Anyway read the discussion for yourself and draw your own conclusions. Just don't know who the author is though.