Tips and FAQ

For people with celiac or an allergy to gluten in general, gluten-free pasta still allows them to enjoy a delicious pasta dish. People without a gluten allergy will get no benefits or disadvantages from eating gluten-free pasta.

The quality of the pasta depends highly on the type of wheat used. We only use the best durum wheat semolina for the production of our pasta. The use of eggs in pasta dough is mainly intended to give the pasta a more firm structure. And as far as whether or not to use eggs in the pasta dough, we actually follow the Italian culture.

In Northern Italy, people mainly eat pasta with egg such as tagliatelli and filled pasta: for obvious reasons these need a firmer structure. In the south of Italy, people mainly eat pasta without egg (spaghetti, penne, serpentini).

No. For the simple reason that it is not even necessary with most of the pasta. Adding eggs serves to preserve the structure of wider and larger pasta shapes. For example, we use eggs in the dough for our tagliatelli, pappardelle or lasagne sheets, while we do not add eggs to our spaghetti or penne dough.

Eggs are therefore not always an added value for the taste.

No. The Smiling Cook IQF-pasta is made from fresh dough and is, after extrusion, cooked perfectly al dente, lightly misted with a vegetable oil and immediately IQF-frozen. As a result, our pasta will not stick together after regeneration.

Despite the fact that our fresh pasta dough already contains a pinch of salt, we recommend adding a little salt to the cooking water: it gives the pasta more flavour. However, if you follow a low-salt diet, you can omit the salt in the cooking water.

Fresh frozen pasta is the best option to approach traditional fresh pasta. The delicious taste of fresh pasta is guaranteed by the use of fresh ingredients. The freezing process ensures long storage while retaining all intrinsic properties, without adding preservatives or without fumigation. You do not believe it? Just let our culinary advisor convince you.

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That is variable from case to case. Usually we remark an average between 250 g and 350 g. The convenience strength about the pasta from The Smiling Cook is that they are portioned in 50 g nests, so you no longer have to weigh by yourself. Just take the correct number of nests and heat up during 75 seconds.

This is possible. However, following the Italian food culture, the “right” pasta shape will complement a particular sauce and improve the taste and appearance of the finished pasta dish.

Usually, Italians use thinner types of pasta with a light sauce and thicker shapes such as tagliatelli with sauces with more body (often with meat, mushrooms, etc.).

All Italians will give you the following answer:

• with coarse, thicker pasta you give a firm meat sauce.
• thin pasta is delicious with a light sauce based on oil or tomato.
• hollow pasta needs to be combined with a sauce with many pieces (vegetables and/or meat).

Since there are more than 600 different pasta types, we limit ourselves in this answer to the large families, namely long cut pasta, tubular and short curly pasta.

Long cut pasta such as spaghetti and linguine don't go well with thick tomato-based sauces. The strands easily "drown" in the sauce, leaving the vegetables and meat at the bottom of your dish. An arrabiata, primavera or puttanesca sauce, a pesto sauce or a Neapolitan sauce are more suitable for this.

Penne, fusilli, rigatoni and macaroni easily tolerate heavier sauces with a lot of meat. Small pieces of sauce are absorbed through the hollow part of these pastas, creating a perfectly balanced bite. These pasta types are also an excellent choice for cheese sauces, because the cavities ensure a smooth spread of the cheese.

Short pasta such as serpentini, conchiglie and farfalle are ideal for a cold pasta salad with a sauce or vinaigrette depending on the ingredients of the salad.

No! Quick freezing is a 100% natural method to conserve food for a much longer time, stopping the development of bacteria. However, if a frozen product thaws, the bacteria have again a chance to develop. If you freeze the thawed product again, bacteria formation will be stopped again, but they will remain and will also redevelop faster afterwards.

In principle, there is no problem, but preferably you should transport the pasta in an thermal box with special cooling elements.

Absolutely. After all, our freshly made pasta is cooked perfectly al dente immediately after extrusion, which inactivates the enzymes (which break down vitamin C and other nutrients and cause taste and odour abnormalities). The pasta is then quickly cooled and IQF frozen, with minimal loss in vitamins and minerals. What’s more: by deep-freezing our pasta, no artificial storage methods are required like often with ‘fresh’ pasta.

No, really not! Additives, preservatives and artificial colours and flavours are not used in our pasta: it is produced “pure nature”, then frozen. The freezing itself is done so quickly that the cell structure of the pasta is optimally preserved and that virtually no nutrients are lost during regeneration. In the freezer, our pasta has a shelf life of 18 months from production date and without preservatives.

Special? It is important that you know that our pasta is freshly prepared, and afterwards perfectly cooked "al dente" and IQF frozen. This allows you to serve a fresh pasta in a nutshell. Moreover, you are also sure that you should not throw anything away at the end of the working day.