Today we are making 3D printed Pasta alla Norma with Barilla’s Spaghetto 3D

Last month, I got my hands on a box of 3D printed pasta, Spaghetto 3D, from BluRhapsody. I promised to do an unboxing and cook a meal with it for VoxelMatters’ VM Focus on 3D printed foods this month. It took some time. I finally got down to it, with a modern, high-tech twist on one of my favorite dishes: Pasta alla Norma, one of the most traditional pasta dishes of the rich Sicilian culinary tradition.

I am no chef, so it took me some time. To honor both the 3D printed aspect and the traditional aspect that Italian cuisine demands, in my 3D Printed Pasta alla Norma, I mixed conventional ingredients with some modern cooking techniques.

Let’s see how it came out.

Now, a little background information. BluRhapsody is a spin-off project born from Barilla’s R&D research for those unfamiliar with it. It began with a contest in 2015 and later evolved into creating a service offering the Barilla-developed pasta 3D printer to produce designs. Now, the company has again provided chefs with the ability to purchase 3D printed, customized pasta pieces. Based in Parma, Italy (of course), BluRhapsody by Barilla is the first startup from Blu1877 – a company set up to interact with and support the efforts of those who are creating the future of food.

Unfortunately, neither Barilla nor BluRhapsody has been very open to supporting our effort to make their 3D printed pasta known to the global additive manufacturing community. This meant that we had to buy the pasta, which was not cheap. The packages run from €15,90 for the dried pasta 12-pieces pack to more than €30 for 12-pieces of fresh pasta in more intricate shapes.  The project is still in its relative infancy, and like many other 3D printing-related efforts, it focuses on high-end chefs and cooking world professionals. Last time we checked, the product is unavailable outside of Europe. But we think it’s time that it expands beyond, and our VM Focus on 3D printed food is the perfect occasion to start.

For those unfamiliar with Pasta alla Norma, it is simply pasta (usually spaghetti, but short pasta is ok, too) with tomato sauce, fried eggplants, and grated hard ricotta cheese (and some fresh basil). Other than tomatoes and eggplant usually taste better in Sicily, the hard ricotta cheese is the most difficult ingredient to get if you live elsewhere. For this reason, we wanted to add twists to the tomato and eggplants, as you’ll see further down.

The 3D printed pasta

For this first experiment with 3D printed pasta, we chose something that would both be classic and not too expensive like some of the more creative designs: the Spaghetto 3D. For €15,90, you get 12 pieces of 3D printed spaghetti, weighing about 7 grams. So you get about 84 grams of pasta for 16 euros, at 190 euros per Kg. Considering that pasta in Italy is usually a couple of euros per kilogram (5 euros for the high-end ones), it is not exactly a bargain. Other than the novelty and uniqueness of the 3D printed shapes, you pay for the beautiful packaging.

The Spaghetto 3D pasta itself also looks very interesting and innovative. The fact that – as we will see – it does not come undone while boiling is not to be taken lightly. And the final result, which – if you follow the indicated cooking times to the second – makes it just hard enough on the inside and soft enough on the outside, and very pleasant to eat.

Creating such a large piece of pasta so that it can be cooked to be perfectly “al dente” is no easy feat in my opinion. BluRhapsody clarifies that all its pasta products are made from a selection of high-quality ingredients, such as semolina derived from the finest grains. The dough is worked with the artisanal method and in small quantities, to ensure and maintain a perfect consistency at all times. So you are paying for that quality as well.

BluRhapsody also offers several fresh pastas with themed shapes. For example, marine-related ones are filled with various types of seafood and seafood sauces. These

The condiments

So, how did we cook this marvel of modern pasta technology? First, we grated some hard ricotta cheese and used it to make chips by baking them in the oven. Then, we sliced up the eggplant and sprayed it with olive oil before frying it in the air fryer to keep it lighter and more delicate-tasting.

At this point, we started making the sauce. We did it in two different ways. On one side is the traditional sauce, made with fresh, peeled tomatoes, a little bit of olive oil, a single clove of garlic (to be removed after flavoring up the oil), and some fresh basil. Then we used a direct spherification technique (adding sodium alginate to the tomato juice and dipping the drops in a podium chloride bath) to make some “tomato juice caviar”, mainly as decoration.

As indicated on the box, we cooked the Spaghetto 3D for exactly 7 minutes, dropping them in boiling salted water. I feared it would be overcooked, as the cooking time can vary, but it turned out right. We drained them and set them up on the plate with the eggplant and ricotta cheese chips. Finally, we grated hard ricotta cheese on top and added more basil. Although I realize it was not up to high-end chef standards, the result was delicious. In part, that’s because the ingredients were really good and because the pasta had a unique feel. Naturally, we accompanied the meal with a delicious Ripasso wine, which is not a Sicilian wine but it is my personal favorite.

Between the cost and the time it took, this is not something I will likely repeat anytime soon. But it was a great culinary experience and worth it. If you love cooking, you can no longer ignore this possibility.