Effect of Potato-Derived Ingredients on the Quality Characteristics and Resistant Starch Content of Durum Wheat Pasta

The incorporation of potato-derived ingredients into cereal-based products represents a promising strategy for improving their nutritional quality while promoting resistant starch (RS) formation through starch retrogradation. This study investigated the effects of potato starch (PS), potato flakes (PF), and potato grits (PG), incorporated at 10 and 20% substitution levels, on the technological, physicochemical, nutritional, and RS characteristics of durum wheat pasta. All potato-enriched pasta samples were compared with a control pasta (CON) produced from 100% durum wheat semolina without any additives. Pasta samples were evaluated for farinograph properties, cooking quality, texture profile, color, chemical composition, and starch digestibility after cooking, cooling (4 °C, 24 h) and freezing (−18 °C, 24 h) treatments. The incorporation of potato materials significantly affected dough behavior and pasta quality depending on the type and level of supplementation. The incorporation of PF and 20% PG slightly increased total dietary fiber (TDF) content in pasta samples, although the differences were not statistically significant (p > 0.05), whereas PS addition reduced TDF levels.Potato-enriched pasta exhibited shorter minimal cooking times (MCT) than the control, while cooking loss (CL) increased, particularly in PG20 (9.33% d.b.). Texture properties were strongly influenced by the potato ingredient, with PF producing the highest hardness and adhesiveness values, whereas PS showed textural characteristics closer to those of the control. Cooling alone resulted in negligible RS formation in most samples; however, frozen storage resulted in substantially higher RS contents than refrigerated storage, a response consistent with the formation of retrograded, enzyme-resistant starch structures. The highest RS content was observed in PG20 (3.18% d.b.), representing a 335.6% increase compared with the control, accompanied by a reduction in digestible starch. These findings demonstrate that the physical form of potato ingredients plays a key role in determining pasta quality and that PG, combined with frozen storage, may increase the RS content of durum wheat pasta, although this was accompanied by higher cooking loss and changes in texture.