User:Lizz Guo/Fiori (pasta)

Fiori pasta has the shape of a flower that is formed with seven tubes, one tube in the middle and others surrounding it. That is the reason why it is reminiscent of the flower in Italian. It is also known as iori di sambuco and margheritine. Fiori pasta based on the meaning of its name and added diverse ingredients for improving taste. Fiori pasta is a sort of shortcut pasta like Rotelle, which is similar to a wheel. Both of these two short cut pasta are excellent for various soups, casseroles and salads for its great nutritive value, hardness flavor and smooth texture.

A few people enjoy homemade Fiori pasta since it requires particular processing machines and its unique shapes. Therefore, most of the Fiori pasta is dry pasta for meeting the demand on the market, which can be stored nearly indefinitely by simple ingredients only with flour, water and salt. The popularity and high demand of pasta results in a high amount of consumption of it, Italy consumes about 28.5kg for each person in a year and it reaches as much as 48kg in Sicily. Moreover, there is a significant number of production of pasta for exporting, for instance, pasta consumption increased from approximately 3 kg for each person per year in 1965 to a quantity of 9 kg in 1999 .Pasta is an extensively consumed food in the world, but it is to be used as an umbrella term to discuss some types of pasta dishes that are considered healthy or less unhealthy. Therefore, the nutrition of pasta becomes increasingly more important, and more epidemiological certifications testify that pasta could improve chronic degenerative diseases when consumed in combination with appropriate phytochemicals.

Varieties
Fresh pasta and dried pasta are completely different types of pasta due to the various ingredients, textures, tastes, and shapes. In this way, every type of pasta has its own distinct cooking method and special features to prepare meals. The majority of Fiori pasta is produced in the approach of dried pasta because of its special form, but some people would also make Fiori pasta by fresh pasta for capturing its unique taste and nutrition.

Fresh
Fresh pasta is more popular and common in northern Italy, some people usually make fresh Fiori pasta at home with a simple dough of flour, eggs, and additional water, but it tends to be more expired because of its fresh ingredients and simple processing. As a result, several food companies have launched a sort of vacuum package for improving the quality of fresh pasta and satisfying the demand of customers in the market. However, the ingredients and processing of fresh pasta have to change and meet additional requirements: it must be pasteurized and kept at zero and four degrees Celsius, and the water activities of it must be in the 0.92-0.97 range. This fresh pasta not only extends shelf-life but also be more tenacious, ductile as well as smooth than the traditional fresh pasta.

Dried
Dried pasta originated in southern Italy, which was deemed to be factory-manufactured since its production needs factory technology equipment to achieve the processing effects of air-dried and bronze extruded. The “Encyclopedia of pasta” documented dried pasta was found from a.d.800 and spread by the Muslim occupiers of Sicily who had mastered the drying and manufacturing techniques. The traditional dried pasta is made with water, salt, and semolina flour, while it needs to keep away from damp and sunshine and dried at a low temperature for evaporating water. The Majority of food companies applied the traditional drying approach below 60 Celsius, which could offer assistance for remaining lipids in balance and stable when made pasta during the processing of drying, also it has a positive influence on its structural properties.

Ingredients
The traditional Fiori pasta is mainly produced by the durum flour and semolina flour since the time of Cato's De Agri Cultura, however, more suitable material and various combination recipes have been created and used to satisfy the different demand of customers, such as additional farina flour, rice and corn.


 * Semolina is a kind of flour that is made from durum wheat. Durum wheat is also known as tritium durum, which is amber-colored and the second most cultivated types of wheat.


 * Spelt wheat is an ancient crop that has been planted for centuries in Europe, which also has unique nutritional as well as sensorial values.


 * Aestivum wheat is the main material for producing soft wheat flour. According to the experimental report from Bergman (1994), the pasta color would be improved by supplying 30% cowpea into the soft wheat.


 * Soy flour is used to provide protein in pasta which raise the albumen and high-lysine content for pasta without any impacts on its flavor and taste.


 * Buckwheat flour includes about 10-12.5% of proteins, 4.7% of lipids, 65-75% of starch, vitamins B1 and B2, minerals salts, and many valuable elements that have a high biological value.


 * Maize flour can be used in preparing pasta with the admixture of durum wheat because it is a benefit for surface conditions after drying pasta. Besides, the maize flour will improve the quality and taste of pasta with the heat treatment at 90 Celsius if the size of fine maize flour is less than 100 micron.


 * The egg is a material for producing fresh pasta, which could enhance the color and nutrition of the pasta.


 * Chickpea flour could be more nutritious since it includes a significant quantity of protein. Based on the research of Sabanis (2006), the dough has the function that increasing expansion rate and water absorption to lower the production cost.

Processing
The modern production process of Fiori pasta is completed via automation with higher productivity that can produce around 8,000 kg per hour. There are four rudimentary procedures including hydrating, mixing, forming, and drying in the pasta production process. The main components of durum wheat flour cover 74-76% DB of starches and 12-15% DB of proteins, and wheat starch is composed by spherical type B granules and lenticular type A granules. Glutenins occupy about 80% of wheat protein, which is formed by high and low molecular weight subunits and associated with disulphide bonds. As a result, the textural variation of starch and protein is crucial to the final product.

Hydrating and mixing
The objective of this section is to appropriately hydrate raw material and uniformly mix. As an example, semolina has 30%- 32% hydrated content, and the hydrated standard has to coordinate to lower or higher for acquiring proper dough. The amount of water relies on the whole moisture content and hydrophilic capability of different types of ingredients that includes nontraditional ingredients. The warm water will accelerate the hydrated rate, however, overhydration could create sticky dough, in other words, unsatisfactory. Conversely, a lack of hydration leads to the stiff dough so that causes problems of dryness and breakage. Most modern mixers have two main sections that cover pre-mixer as well as the main mixer, the latter plays a major role in providing enough time for hydration with a retention time of 15 to 20 minutes, furthermore, the retention time is decreased to about 3 minutes or less by the development of the new system.

Forming and drying
Most Fiori pasta is formed by the extrusion process, which is composed of a cylinder fitted and equipped with an extrusion screw. The shape of the extrusion head and die support depends on the exact shape of Fiori pasta. The dough is slitted by a particular rotary cutter, and then these half-finished pasta will be felled onto conveyors and transferred into the dryer. Since the 1970s, the developments of pasta manufacturing have given rise to a growth in the temperature of drying, which increased from 40-60 degrees Celsius to 74-90 degrees Celsius. Meanwhile, the higher temperature results in a shorter drying time, it is favourable for the stickiness and utilization as well.

Pasta salad
Ingredients include 250g of Fiori pasta, 3 tablespoons of white balsamic vinegar, 4 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 glass of grilled vegetables in oil, 120g of mozzarella pear, 50g of pitted black olives, 2 tablespoons of pine nuts and 90g of the rocket. It generally has 17g of protein, 54g of carbohydrates and 27g of fat.

Fiori pasta with salmon and baby spinach
Ingredients include 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 parcel of Bossi Fiori pasta, 150g of spinach and 120g smoked salmon. Totally, this dish has about 26g of protein, 31g of carbohydrates and 29g of fat.

Pasta with mortadella and peas

Ingredients include 300g of fiori pasta, one onion, 100g of mortadella sausage in slices, 1 tablespoons of full cream, a half of mild paprika salt and pepper and 200g of frozen peas.

It totally has about 17g of protein, 63g of carbohydrates and 24g of fat.

Nutrition
Pasta has a sophisticated and synthetic component system with biomacromolecules, which includes carbohydrates, lipids, proteins, and other trace elements that the human body needs .According to the Italian Nutrition and Health Survey, nutritionists pointed out that the intake of pasta has a negative association with the index of indexes of the prevalence of overweight and obesity. Besides, the pasta will be a kind of slowly absorbed carbohydrate with a shorter cooking duration, which has been confirmed to have favourable metabolic results and incorporate weaken the response of insulin and postprandial glucose.

The nutrition of Fiori pasta is depending on what to constitute it. Many non-traditional ingredients have been exploited in the pasta market, such as maize, inulin, and corn gluten meal which can be added into the dough and supply diverse nutrition to satisfy the different demands of customers. Triticum dicoccum is a common material for producing Fiori pasta, which is one of the better sources of dietary fiber and protein, also it has a lower carbohydrate digestibility and glycemic that could reduce taxes on the digestive and metabolic systems for humans. Meanwhile, Steadman et al.(2001) had proved the buchwheat flour contains 15% dietary fiber, and durum wheat has about 34-36% dietary fiber. Prabhasankar et al. (2009) stated incorporating brown seaweed in a dough that could actively affect the nutritional and bio-functional capability. Microstructure research demonstrates that the incorporation of seaweed will enhance about 2.5% gluten network for pasta with improved bio-functionality and higher utility value as food products. Meanwhile, new research has confirmed that seaweed contains abundant carotenoids such as fucoxanthin, astaxanthin, and dietary fibre. Therefore, it can be applied in the preparation of pasta without affecting sensory quality.

Moreover, several food companies have increased nutrient content into their pasta products with a scientific combination of nutrients. For instance, added about 18% of thiamin, 17% of pyridoxine and 8% of niacin in the cooking water during the processing. Furthermore, the pasta will achieve great acceptability if it contains a massive amount of dietary fiber, sodium, magnesium, vitamins, and other valuable elements such as pigeon pea.