Everything you need to know about gourmet sausage. The Italian food craze has duped many Americans into thinking that freshly made pasta is the height of cuisine from the Boot. But day in and day out, Italians enjoy excellent dried pasta. Fresh pasta is not better, it's different. And besides, says Plotkin, good fresh pasta is highly perishable and is almost impossible to buy commercially.
Refrigeration ruins it, even if it's vacuum-packed.
Artisanal pasta is made more carefully and at a much more leisurely pace than is mass-produced pasta. Dough is slowly extruded through bronze dies, creating a rough surface on the pasta that makes it look like it's been sanded. This helps it to absorb sauce better. It's like unfiltered olive oil. There's more complexity.