I’ll bet you thought that a well made durum semolina pasta would be a good source of nutrition, including dietary fiber; well, so did I until this morning. The Science & Nutrition news feed, Fibre-enriched pasta beats tradition in taste test, greeted me over coffee, and it may prove that pasta really wasn’t nutritious enough after all! Food Scientists in Mexico have recently published interim results of an ongoing study including:
It seems as if they added varying proportions of unripe banana flour - up to 45% - to durum semolina flour to produce a more “functional” pasta. A number of the pasta’s characteristics were affected, but
“Then why bother,” I thought, but reading further I found:
Apparently this was especially the case with both 30% and 45% unripe banana flour added. "Most excellent," I thought, my mouth watering at the possibilities. But I still wasn’t sure of the benefits of the enriched pasta? Well, apparently unripe banana flour contains antioxidants, and more importantly, it's loaded with Resistant Starch (RS), which acts like Dietary Fiber, and you know how good that is for you. Plus, it’s ALL NATURAL. I guess more is better!
While I need to mull over the new savory possibilities, I can just see a whole host dessert applications. I assume that once perfected, they will be offering a pasta flour enriched with 45% unripe banana flour, to which I could add some cocoa powder and create a Chocolate Banana Tagliatelle with my hand-crank pasta machine. I could top it with a scoop, or two, of freshly made Vanilla Bean Gelato from my local Artisan Gelato Maker - asking him to add a little extra of his ALL NATURAL emulsifier, Guar Gum, which also acts as Dietary Fiber. I would finish with a sprinkle of chopped, high fiber Green Gage plums and call it Tagliatelle alla Banana Split. This perfect, savory pasta look alike will make quick work of any big meal that precedes it, if you know what I mean. Just think, no more Prunes Stewed in Armagnac. Let’s here it for our newest functional food:
The addition of banana flour to spaghetti without detriment of consumer preference is possible…
Consumer testing revealed no significant differences in preference between the control and the banana-flour enriched pasta.
The addition of tomato sauce increased the acceptability of the (enriched) spaghetti;
While I need to mull over the new savory possibilities, I can just see a whole host dessert applications. I assume that once perfected, they will be offering a pasta flour enriched with 45% unripe banana flour, to which I could add some cocoa powder and create a Chocolate Banana Tagliatelle with my hand-crank pasta machine. I could top it with a scoop, or two, of freshly made Vanilla Bean Gelato from my local Artisan Gelato Maker - asking him to add a little extra of his ALL NATURAL emulsifier, Guar Gum, which also acts as Dietary Fiber. I would finish with a sprinkle of chopped, high fiber Green Gage plums and call it Tagliatelle alla Banana Split. This perfect, savory pasta look alike will make quick work of any big meal that precedes it, if you know what I mean. Just think, no more Prunes Stewed in Armagnac. Let’s here it for our newest functional food:
Yes, we have no Bananas,
We’ve made them into Pasta today!
Comments