Boiling water hits two bowls of noodles. One collapses into a soft mass. Lanzhou ramen and Italian pasta stay firm, elastic and chewy. The difference sits not in the flour label, but in the gluten network and the way a little salt or alkali tunes it.When wheat proteins glutenin and gliadin hydrate and are kneaded, they form a gluten network, a kind of edible mesh. This mesh is strengthened by disu...More