How to Buy Pasta

• Fresh pasta: Fresh pasta is soft, raw pasta that must be boiled for 3–5 minutes before eating. Packaged fresh pasta, marketed by national brands such as De Cecco, is sold in vacuumed-sealed plastic containers at supermarkets nationwide. When buying this type of fresh pasta, be sure to check the expiration date to assess the pasta’s freshness. Fresh pasta is also often sold in bulk in local markets and restaurants in which it’s made from scratch. When buying fresh pasta in bulk, choose intact, smooth-textured, and uniformly colored pasta (ivory to yellow) that has a pleasant aroma. If you can’t find a local source of fresh pasta, you can also make pasta at home with just a few inexpensive ingredients and everyday kitchen supplies.
• Dried pasta: Dried pasta is hard pasta that has been dehydrated. It’s sold in bags and boxes and must be boiled for 8–12 minutes before eating. Dried pasta is made from a much wider array of ingredients and comes in many more shapes than fresh pasta. Dried pasta has no expiration date.