Pasta dies need to warm up. The cold die produces a coarse noodle with excessive irregularities. As the die warms up through the extrusion process the dough comes together more cohesively. The irregular noodles are simply broken up and fed back into the hopper, mixed into the dough, crumbled, and extruded as new noodles. While the machine continues to work, the pasta gains a visual smoothness, still retaining the signature rough texture from the bronze die. It's a subtle difference that can only be discerned with experience. I have a theory that the warming of the die helps with the hydration of the flour, thus producing the smoother textured noodle. It's yet another case where patience will yield exponentially better results.
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