Relationship between cooking quality of fresh pasta made from durum wheat and protein content and molecular weight distribution parameters

Abstract

AbstractBackground and objectivesAlthough proteins are known to have a dominant impact on pasta cooking quality for dry pasta, little information has been reported on associations between proteins and the cooking quality of fresh pasta. Therefore, the objective of this research was to assess associations between protein molecular weight distribution (MWD) parameters and cooking quality of fresh pasta made from durum wheat.FindingsSemolina samples that had high protein contents produced fresh pasta with high cooked pasta firmness (CPF) and low cooked pasta weight (CPW) and cooking loss. Protein MWD parameters varied with their associations with pasta cooking quality. Variation in CPF was positively associated with combination of SDS extractable and unextractable gliadin and albumin +globulin fractions but negatively associated with SDS extractable polymeric protein fraction. The CPW was positively affected by extractable polymeric protein fraction, while impact of albumin +globulin fraction was negative.ConclusionsProtein fractions had predominant and different roles on the variation of CPF and CPW of fresh pasta.Significance and noveltyThis research reports novel information on associations between fresh pasta cooking quality and protein MWD parameters. The research identified protein components that had dominant roles in determining pasta cooking quality of fresh pasta.