The aim of this work is to evaluate and compare the effects of microwave and conventional drying (hot air) on the quality characteristics of cooked pasta. Experiments were carried out on pasta type spaghetti. A huge difference was noticed between times necessary to dry samples by hot air and by microwaves, in fact in the first case, the drying time was on the average 204.5 min vs. 61.7 s of microwave treatment (average). The gelatinization degree of samples dried by hot air was faster than that of those dried by microwaves: the medium values of kinetic constant of gelatinization of samples dried by hot air and microwaves were 7.5 and 5.2, respectively. Similar total organic matter values suggest that the cooking quality of samples differently dried was comparable. Moreover, samples dried by microwaves were thicker than pasta dried by hot air (37.8 vs. 27.4). (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.