Ohhh, so that’s the part that’s made of bronze. That makes more sense. It threw me off that it’s called “bronze cut” and not “bronze extruded” but I get it now

because there is a myth that rough pasta holds more sauce

I don’t know, the Italian in this thread seems to approve of bronze-cut pasta. Not sure if the opinion of a German overrides that… (I jest, I have German grandparents)

they figured out they can charge extra for pasta that that was made on a die without PTFE coating

Honestly, PTFE has other issues though. It’s a forever chemical and can cause birth defects and cancer. For several years it was popular on cooking stuff for its non-stick and anti-scratching properties. I had a couple pans with it myself, and I loved them at the time. But that was before we as a society learned more about PTFE. Like asbestos and cigarettes, it became widely adopted before we knew enough to avoid it.

Aside from PTFE, phenols (like BPA, BPS, and PFAS) are another thing that are really important to avoid, but commonly used in modern manufacturing.