Handmade natural Italian pasta from Marella.The black is natural squid ink that is added in a special process to traditional bowtie shaped pastas. This is a feat that is not simple to perform, and still have the pasta hold its shape and color structure while cooking. Made from premium durum wheat. Cooks in 7 minutes. Serves 4.

• All natural ingredients. Durham wheat and natural squid ink for coloring.

In the 1600s Naples was in the throes of a tremendous economic depression. Reversing the tide of the times was a Neapolitan industrial revolution featuring the high speed production of pasta using a machine that pressed the flour and water mix through a die that would extrude pasta with different shapes, depending on the type of die used. This industrial process is still used today by pasta factories everywhere to obtain the pasta we know that comes in the familiar shapes of penne, rigatoni, and spaghetti, something we cannot accomplish at home. This technique has evolved to make a pasta that is so fabulous that perhaps one of the best ways to serve it is with a simple butter and parmesan cheese, or garlic and oil, just to fully savor the texture and flavor of this pasta. One customer who has discovered our Marella pasta exclaims, "It's like eating real food for the first time!" The quality of the locally grown durum wheat and the actual method employed are the most important aspects of the pasta production. Unlike other pasta factories that may pass the pasta through the die repeatedly, Marella has a minimal number of passes through the dye giving the pasta remarkable strength while preserving the structural integrity of the proteins and glutens.

Whether making white pasta or pasta containing dehydrated natural dyes extracted from spinach, tomatoes, red beets, tumeric, pepper, or squid ink, the pasta dough goes through the same extraction process using a bronze die. Large industrial pasta factories uses a more resistant teflon coated steel die which gives the pasta a smooth white look. Artisan pasta is extruded through a bronze die giving the dried pasta a rough texture to better hold the sauce, and yellowish powdery appearance making it look more like real food. The use of this kind of die works in conjunction with a special drying method to yield a pasta that will swell up to amazing size and have its own unique flavor. Depending on the type of pasta, the extruded shape is allowed to dry for 20 to 48 hours at the low temperature of 29-33 degrees Celsius, unlike industrial pasta which is dried at a 90-95 degrees for a short time. This allows the large industry to pump out large amounts of pasta in a short time, pasta that will have an unnaturally longer shelf life, but also 40% less lysine (an essential amino acid) and the formation of a protein reticulum that holds in more starch (more carbs) when cooking this lesser quality pasta. Drying at a low temperature for several days ensures that the drying flour matrix forms with large open pores, thereby yielding more easily digested carbohydrates, and a pasta shape that will absorb water with great efficiency while cooking, swelling up to several times its dry size after boiling! Furthermore, this slow drying process at a low temperature favors a chemical reaction that lowers the pH of the pasta itself, giving it a unique and delicious flavor.