4.3.5. Pasta Fracturability

Pasta fracturability as the maximum force F (g) required to break a dry pasta piece was determined with a Perten TVT-6700 texturometer (Perten Instruments, Sweden). An aluminum break rig set adjusted to 13 mm width was used, the test speed being set to 3 mm/s and the trigger force to 50 g [62].

## 4.3.6. Total Polyphenolics Content

The extracts were prepared according to the method described by Melilli et al. [63]. An amount of 2 g of grinded uncooked dry pasta was extracted with 20 mL of methanol 80% (*v/v*) in a sonication bath at 37 ◦C and 45 Hz for 40 min, and then the mix was filtered. Total polyphenols content (TPC) (µg GAE/g dm) of dry pasta was evaluated by using the Folin–Ciocalteu method [64]. The extract was diluted in a ratio of 1:4 with distillated water and mixed with Folin–Ciocalteu reagent (1N) and sodium carbonate 20% (*v/v*) and left to rest in darkness for 40 min. The absorbance was read at 725 nm on an UV–VIS–NIR Shimadzu 3600 (Tokyo, Japan) spectrophotometer. TPC was calculated from a calibration curve (*R* <sup>2</sup> = 0.99) made with gallic acid (GAE).

## 4.3.7. Total Dietary Fiber Content

For dietary fiber content TDF (% dm) estimation, a FOSS 6500 NIR (FOSS NIRSystems, Silver Springs, FL, USA) infrared spectrometer was used. Uncooked dry pasta samples were ground before the analysis and the spectra were collected at room temperature. For calibration, off the shelf INGOT commercial calibrations (AUNIR, Towcester, UK) were used. Standard materials provided by AUNIR were used for bias corrections [65].
