The Reason Bobby Flay Prefers To Get His Pasta From Italy

Bobby Flay has explored several different types of cuisine in his restaurant career, from the southwestern-inspired cuisine at Mesa Grill to Bar Americain's French-New American mashup and the more straight-up American stylings of Bobby Flay Steak. Among his newer ventures is Amalfi, an Italian restaurant in Las Vegas, and he's also displayed his enthusiasm for Italian food in the TV show "Bobby and Giada in Italy." It comes as little surprise, then, to find out that Flay keeps a variety of Italian staples in his kitchen (although the fact that he considers pre-made pasta sauce a pantry staple is a bit of an eyebrow-raiser).

In a video Flay shared on Instagram, he tells viewers "I buy a lot of pasta from Italy because I love the flour that they use there." While he doesn't explain what's so special about the flour, other sources insist that Italian pasta is better than the American kind because it's made entirely from semolina. As it happens, even generic American pasta such as Great Value and Kroger are also semolina-based, so that can't be the sole reason. One Italian chef posting on Instagram claims that Italian pasta is dried longer at lower temperatures, although it's unclear if this applies to all kinds of Italian pasta or is a matter of a high-end, artisanal product being compared to a more highly-processed, mass-produced one. Who knows? Maybe Flay's preference for Italian-made pasta is simply because it reminds him of his travels and everything tastes better on a vacation.

Like us, you may have wondered whether the pasta used at Bobby Flay's Amalfi is sourced from Italy or made at the restaurant, as neither the restaurant's website nor its online menu discloses this information. However, Flay has confirmed that the pasta is house-made. We daresay, though, that despite it being produced in Vegas, it's still Italian-inspired (as is the rest of Amalfi's menu) and would, of course, be made from semolina. In fact, Flay learned the dough technique for his restaurant's scialatielli with scampi sauce from a chef based in Italy.

The other types of pasta Flay uses at Amalfi include fettuccine, which is colored with squid ink and served with a seafood medley; bucatini, which is accompanied by a red clam sauce; and orecchiette, which is topped with an eggplant bolognese. The menu also features gnocchi (baked al forno-style with tomato sauce, fontina cheese, and an oregano-parsley pesto). However, we assume that this isn't made from semolina but from potatoes instead as is typical for this style of pasta no matter whether it's made in Italy or elsewhere.