Effect of extrusion process on properties of cooked, fresh egg pasta

Abstract The objective of this study was to evaluate the chemical and physical characteristics of cooked fresh egg pasta samples obtained using two different production methodologies: Extrusion and lamination. The samples of fresh egg pasta were produced in an industrial plant and subjected to the different lamination processes. The obtained pasta samples were then pasteurized and cooked in water. For each type of sample colour, cooking behaviour, texture, furosine content and pasta surface characteristic were evaluated. Besides, the two kinds of products were analyse using Fourier transform near-infrared (FT-NIR) spectroscopy. The extrude pasta were tougher than the sheet-rolled pasta, absorbed more water during the cooking and released more total organic matter (TOM) in the rinsing water. The colour difference between the two type of pasta after the heat treatment of pasteurization was reduced after the cooking, due to water absorption, and two samples showed to be more similar. The results obtained show that extrusion process led to a higher furosine content than sheet rolled processes. FT-NIR analysis suggests they have different matrix–water associations, different degrees of starch gelatinization, and also different surface structure characteristics. More differences between the two types of pasta were reduced by cooking, rendering them more similar and this result has been confirmed by sensory analysis. In fact under our experimental conditions extruded pasta was not discriminated from sheet rolled pasta by most of the sensory panelists (less than 29%).