Preservation of Bioactive Compounds Occurring in Fresh Pasta Fortified with Artichoke Bracts and Tomato Powders Obtained with a Novel Pre-Treatment

Over the years, the need to recover agro-industrial by-products has become a global concern, due to their environmental and economic impact. In this work, two different powders obtained from artichoke bracts and tomato by an innovative, non-thermal, and non-invasive technology (patent nr. 001,426,984) were added to the formulation of fresh Tagliatelle pasta. The fate of bioactive compounds before and after the cooking process was analyzed following the total polyphenolic content and the antioxidant activity. The addition of vegetable powders led to an increase in the above-mentioned parameters (110.0 mg of Gallic Acid/100 g pasta and 36.4 mu mol TEAC/100 g pasta for Artichoke-LP-Raw Pasta; 120.1 mg of Gallic Acid/100 g pasta and 55.3 mu mol TEAC/ 100 g pasta for Tomato-LP-Raw Pasta), and a mutual protection between polyphenolic compounds and proteins was observed, minimizing the bioactive compounds degradation along cooking process. The volatile organic fraction and the rate of starch digestion with related predicted glycaemic index were also investigated in fortified Tagliatelle samples, showing differences among them, demonstrating that the type of vegetable added characterized the aroma of both raw and cooked pasta. This functional pasta has proved to retain an antioxidant activity higher than the one obtained with the addition of traditional dehydrated vegetables.