Ingredient: Pasta - Shapes
Category: Pasta & Noodles
Season: All
There are only five basic types of pasta:
1 |
The smallest decorative shapes that go into soups, pasta in brodo and sometimes into puddings (they can be stars, flowers, letters of the alphabet, little animals… the list is endless). |
2 |
The solid spaghetti-type pastas, long and thin.
Spaghetti itself is cylindrical and usually about 10 inches (25.5 cm) long; it has a thinner cousin, called spaghettini sometimes referred to as ‘quick-cooking pasta’.
This group includes the long, noodle varieties – tagliatelle, which is flat rather than cylindrical, enriched with eggs and sometimes with spinach, and dried in bunches rather than lengths. It too has a thinner cousin, linguine. |
3 |
The macaroni group or tubular pastas. Some are cut short or curled slightly: some have pointed ends (penne), some are ribbed (rigatoni). |
4 |
The fancy shapes – bows, shells, twists, wheels, frills and the rest of them – look different, they all taste the same in the end. Like long and thin, and tubular pastas, these are usually served with a sauce. |
5 |
There are the pastas that are stuffed or can be bought ready-stuffed. The very large sheets of lasagne, and big tubular cannelloni, both meant to be stuffed and baked.
Ready-stuffed pasta, ravioli, are little square packages with a stuffing inside: tortellini are similar but curled in shape |
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