What Colored Pasta Is Made From

Many of us have seen red, green, and even black pasta on the shelves of supermarkets. It may seem like these colors are achieved by using artificial coloring. However, only natural ingredients are used in the production of colored pasta.

5-Minute Crafts would like to tell you about what colored pasta is made from.

How is regular pasta made?

As a rule, pasta is made from the unleavened dough of a durum wheat flour mixed with water or eggs. Then, pasta of various shapes is formed from the dough and cooked in boiling water. Usually, this pasta has a yellow-white color.

Pastas can be divided into 2 broad categories: fresh pasta (Pasta Fresca) and dried pasta (Pasta Secca). The first one is often mixed, cooked, and eaten right away, while the second one is dried in order to preserve its properties as long as possible so it can be cooked later, at any convenient time.

Each pasta requires different drying times and methods. For example, long pastas (spaghetti, linguini, bucatini) are hung from rods and undergo a vertical drying process. And short pastas (macaroni, farfalle, penne) are slowly dried using rotational dryers. This helps remove all moisture and ensures that the product can be stored almost indefinitely in the right conditions.

What is colored pasta made from?

As we said above, regular pasta made from flour and water is yellowish-white. Other colors are obtained by adding extracts of natural dyes to the dough before drying. The following colors are commonly used:

• Purple pasta (pasta viola) is colored with tomatoes or beets.
• Green pasta (pasta verde) is colored with spinach.
• Orange pasta (pasta arancione) is colored with tomato paste or different varieties of squash and pumpkin.
• Red pasta (pasta rossa) is colored with carrots or beet puree.
• Black pasta (pasta nera) is colored with squid ink or cuttlefish ink.