We are excited to announce the arrival of a new pasta on the scene. It’s rich in taste, pleasing in texture and packed with nutrients. It’s made with Azure’s own Ultra Unifine flour and there’s an interesting story behind it that’s worth sharing. There’s a common thread to keep an eye out for from beginning to end: there is more to it than meets the eye!
It was time to reinvent pasta for better nutrition & better taste ...
But where to start?
To start with, Azure Mill is a postcard setting at first glance, yet with a high tech interior that you wouldn’t suspect from the outside. It’s nestled in a peaceful valley with beautiful views of Mt. Hood. It’s a quiet, pastoral scene with a pioneer homestead look and feel. Inside however, it’s a much different story—high tech and a lot of fun. Zech Stelzer is the Mill manager. The fun part is where we work closely together with our talented crew to push boundaries and create more nutritious products. It’s all about the nutrition and we have the tools to keep every fraction of goodness from grain to flour.
That led us to thinking about pasta. After all, it’s just flour and water that gets mixed up and squished into shapes, right? Well, that may be the overly simplistic view from the outside, but we knew for certain that we could create a flour with much higher nutrient value on the inside.
Here’s how. It’s the way we mill the flour. Unlike high-speed steel rollers, or stone mills, Azure’s Ultra Unifine mill is cutting edge technology that extracts more of the grain and produces a flour with higher nutrient value. The actual mill is the shape of a large wheel housed horizontally in a steel frame. Sound proof walls enclose the mill because it sounds like a jet engine as it spins up to over 3,500 rpm. When grain strikes the wheel, the energy transferred causes the grain to explode. The grain comes apart at a lower temperature than other techniques with proteins and enzymes intact. It also grinds more of the fine bran into soluble fiber. Zech would need to find the ideal sift in order to ensure only the largest chunks of bran would be removed.
The result that we wanted to meet the eye should be a white flour with a fine texture, yet it contains the nutritional equivalent of a whole wheat flour. We knew for certain we could come to the table with more nutrient value in our pasta, but there remained some unknowns. For example, our Ultra Unifine flour is much finer than other flours, would we be able to make a pasta that holds shape well? And of course taste, what would that be like when we are using so much more of the grain compared to customary white pasta?
We couldn’t wait to find out!
Great dry pasta is made almost exclusively from durum wheat, and Zech started us off by sourcing the best possible organic, non-GMO durum he could find. The flour made from durum is known as Semolina flour and is prized for holding its shape when extruded. Zech milled the wheat and performed a number of tests in order to get the perfect sift. The end result was a high nutrient Ultra Unifine Durum Semolina flour. That’s a mouthful in itself, but would it hold up to the rigors of the pasta maker?
We wanted to use a traditional Italian approach to creating the pasta shapes. We sought out an artisan pasta maker who is in the final phases of obtaining their organic certification. A bronze die was used to make the shells, fusilli and penne in order to get a consistent superior texture. We also had to patiently experiment with the flour and water mixture because our semolina was much finer than usual. Once that step was complete, we began to see the freshly made pasta starting to come through. The pasta is slow-dried at low temperatures overnight where humidity is closely controlled in order to lock in flavor and shape texture. We were thrilled with how well the shapes held up.
As I left our pasta maker with samples, I was anxious to take the next step of taste testing. What would the flavor be like? As a lifelong fan of good pasta, I know that the taste and texture would make-or-break our efforts. Six minutes in vigorously boiling water (with salt) and I was ready to take the first bite. It tasted better than I had hoped. The flavor was delicious yet subtle, the shape held up great while cooking, and the texture was sturdy enough to stand up to all of the sauces I was beginning to imagine.
Back to that common thread I mentioned, there’s so much more than meets the eye. On the outside it looks like a white pasta, it tastes fantastic, and now you know that on the inside it packs the nutritional punch of a whole wheat pasta.
I called Zech and said, “Let’s get sauced”.
We had a great time cooking up each of the shapes with Zech’s family and trying them out. There’s no doubt about it: a pasta dish done well is a wonder to behold. Few foods ring all the sensory bells the way pasta does. Aroma and taste come together with texture in a way that makes this food worth craving. So much so that when enjoying a well-prepared pasta dish, there often comes a moment when I have to remind myself that I was full a while ago, and probably don’t need a third helping. I’d wager I’m not the only one who has had that thought.
You are going to find the subtle flavor of Azure Pasta to be a great foundation for sauces. Yet each shape can hold its own as the star of a solo show with simple favorites like aglio e olio. Pronounced "ah-li-oh eh oh-li-oh", this traditional dish from Naples is simply garlic and olive oil (with maybe a sprinkle of chili peppers for a little zest). It’s as fun to pronounce as it is to eat, which makes it a hit with all ages at the dinner table.
Let’s not forget Buttered Shells—lightly salted—a dish that scored very high at the first informal taste test we held. Both of these dishes really highlighted the delicious flavor of the pasta itself. It had been an interesting path from the first idea to putting pasta on the table, and it was gratifying to know that we had a winner.
All three shapes are great partners for the traditionals such as marinara, alfredo and pesto sauces. It was also a perfect fit for less traditional uses as well. For example, Beef Stroganoff is a life-long favorite of mine, where Azure fusilli is a delicious alternative to wimpy noodles. Another dish that I am really looking forward to is shells and cheese. That’s going to be decadent, and I plan to enforce strict portion control when handling this delicacy!
Bringing Azure pasta to life has been rewarding because we know we have a healthy option for your next pasta night that we trust you’ll find delicious. Thanks for hearing our story, and I’d like to leave you an invitation. Please try our new pasta and let us know what you think. Please reach out to Facebook,Instagram or Twitter to share your story - or click reply and send us an email.
Yours in Abundant Health,
James Baisinger
James is the Director of Special Projects at Azure Standard, PCQI, and SQF Practitioner.