Preparation of Pasta

Microwave puffed cereal based pasta was developed from finger millet and sweet potato powder. The experiment was conducted to develop cold extrudate, microwave puffing to prepare pasta. The cold extrudate were obtained from finger millet flour and sweet potato powder in proportion of 55:45 and at moisture contents of 0.6035 kg/kg dm and steamed in kitchen pressure cooker for 15 min, kneading for 10-15 min in Dolly Mini P3 Pasta machine could yield cold extrudate in rectangular strip of 20 mm long and were useful for further processing. The effect of process parameter viz., convective heating temperature (CT), convective heating time (Ct), microwave power, % of 1350 W (MP), microwave puffing time (Mt) on the quality of product was investigated by conducting experiments using the central composite rotatable design (CCRD). Linear and quadratic models were developed using response surface methodology (RSM) to study the process parameters and responses in terms of moisture content (MC), expansion ratio (ER), hardness (HD), crispness (CSP) and sensory colour score (CL). CT and Ct had predominant effect on responses. The texture characteristics of puffed product were prominently dependent