Pasta is made from durum wheat semolina, to which a percentage of liquid must be added, between 30 and 33% of the volume of the semolina.

In its 'dry' state, the semolina contains a residual moisture content of 12%, but this percentage can be higher depending on the variety of wheat.

Thus, to obtain dry pasta, the drying process consists of eliminating the volume of water added during the manufacturing process and recovering the percentage of moisture initially contained in the semolina.