De Cecco no. 12 spaghetti

Did you know pasta has numbers? Well it does. You might think the number refers to the thickness of the pasta, like the gauge of wires, but you'd be wrong. It's purely a number assigned by the manufacturer with no corresponding industry standard. It's as meaningless or as meaningful as a model name. Then why bring it up? Because I wanted to!

What's more meaningful to you, the cherished consumer, is whether or not the manufacturer uses a bronze die on their extrusion machines. Lately they've been traded out with silicone dies because they're less expensive and more easily replaced. But they produce a smoother pasta, which is undesirable because sauce slips off the cooked noodle more easily, and that's a bummer.

Look for "bronze dies" on the package for guaranteed premium pasta. de Cecco is such a manufacturer. So am I. My Bosch machine pushes pasta dough through bronze dies, and boy, are they ever rough. It's fun as heck, but makes a huge mess. The Atlas is easier, but those aren't extruded. Another method is to use a chitarra (guitar), so called because it's a string instrument. A rolled sheet of dough is pressed through taught wires.