Pasta Production and Technology Short Course

Thirty-one pasta manufacturers from the U.S., Canada, Guatemala, Iran, and Nigeria attended the Pasta Production and Technology Short Course April 16-18 at Northern Crops Institute.  This course is designed to showcase the high quality durum wheat that is produced in the four-state region of North Dakota, Minnesota, Montana, and South Dakota. NCI has offered this course annually since 1984. Lectures were supplemented with hands-on activities in the laboratories and pilot-scale pasta processing, followed by a cooking exercise to evaluate the final product. Quality tests employed in the evaluation of raw materials (wheat, semolina, flour) and finished products are also demonstrated. Group activities included an exercise in identifying pasta defects and processing causes, and a field trip to the Philadelphia Macaroni Company.