I grew up in a large Italian family. Needless to say, pasta was a staple in our home. It was a guarantee that every Sunday we would sit down to a pasta dinner and often one other day in the week too. It was a meal that brought our family and friends to one table where we ate together, talked with one another, and built our relationships.
Pasta was basically a member of our family.
But, like most Americans, I never really understood the purpose of the pasta. I was all about the sauce. As far as I was concerned, the pasta was nothing more than a vessel to serve the neck bone gravy on. It was this perfectly doughy, slightly chewy part of our dinners that we all looked forward too. As I grew, it all changed.
I took my first trip to Italy at the age of 14. I tasted and experienced foods out there I would never forget. One of the things that stood out the most was the pasta. The flavor and texture of every bite of pasta was different than anything I had ever experienced back home. But I couldn’t explain it and I was far from understanding it. One thing was for sure, I was obsessed.
As my culinary career started to grow, so did my understanding of ingredients. I trained under some really amazing chefs who believed that every ingredient had a purpose on the dish. I adopted those beliefs… especially for pasta. I quickly began to read everything I could get my hands on about the history of pasta, the regions and the different shapes.
I began to develop my own understanding of the purpose and function of pasta. The quality of the noodle, the way it should be cooked, and most importantly, how the sauce supports it. Yes, I said how the sauce supports the noodle. Weird, right? It was to me when I had this breakthrough, but to people all over Italy, this is the only way to think.
Each shape of pasta is designed to be paired with a different type of sauce.
Spaghetti, linguine, and capellini are considered long and thin noodles. These noodles are best accompanied by lighter oil based or delicate seafood sauced like vongole or aglio olio.
Pappardelle, malfaldine, fettuccine, bucatini and tagliatelle are long and wide noodles. The width of the noodles gives them more surface area to stand up to richer, meatier sauces such as a neck bone gravy or beef ragu.
Penne, rigatoni, conchiglie, and paccheri are shorter, hollow shapes. These shapes were designed to allow for heavier ingredients to be scooped and grabbed by their openings. Ground meat sauces like Bolognese, or hearty meat and vegetable sauces are perfect for these. Their thicker texture also makes them perfect for baking with cheese.
Caserecci, strozzapreti, gemelli and fusilli trofie are short, delicate twisted noodles. The small curves allow the noodles to grab lighter, smooth sauces such as a pesto sauce or butter sauce. They do not work well with larger chunks of ingredients, but julienned vegetables or other accompaniments cut similarly to the noodle pair nicely.
Ditalini, pastina, stelline and acini di pepe are too small to eat with a fork. Unlike the other noodles, these were made to be added to a broth. These are traditionally added to soups like Italian wedding soup and pastina in brodo.
Ravioli, tortellini, sacchetti and agnolotti are merely a few of the endless amount of stuffed pasta shapes. Since their fillings are the main flavor of the dish, gently wrapped in pasta dough, they are best served with a smooth sauce or a light butter sauce.
Now you might be asking, what about gnocchi or cavatelli? Those are technically dumplings. They fit into a different category and we will visit that in the near future.
The next important thing is the quality of the noodle. I used to think you could buy any box of pasta and it would be fine. Then I started to see some very expensive pastas in the store, almost triple the price of the ones I used to buy, and decided to try those. They weren’t necessarily better. The price has nothing to do with the value and quality.
While good pasta is slightly more expensive than a standard one, the difference will not be significant. I always try to buy pasta that have been cut with bronze dies. It will say right on the package. The bronze die helps give a certain texture to the noodle that factory produced pasta can’t provide. Mass produced noodles have a smooth texture that won’t allow as much sauce to stick to them.
The other factor I look for is if the pasta was produced in Italy. I know this may sound a little cliché, however, the durum wheat and water in Italy are both completely different than what we can get here. The pastas from Italy tend to have a wonderfully light chew and the wheat in the gives a completely different flavor and the pasta absorbs the sauce better. This allows for a light coating and glossy finish on your pasta dish.
Since you can’t open and taste the pastas at the grocery stores, this may take a little trial and error. But after a few tries, you are sure to find a pasta that fits what you love. Once you do, I can guarantee you won’t buy any other kind.
Buon Appetito!
Spaghetti (Italian: [spaˈɡetti]) is a long, thin, solid, cylindrical pasta.[1] It is a staple food of traditional Italian cuisine.[2] Like other pasta, spaghetti is made of milled wheat, water, and sometimes enriched with vitamins and minerals. Italian spaghetti is typically made from durum-wheat semolina.[3] Usually the pasta is white because refined flour is used, but whole wheat flour may be added.[4] Spaghettoni is a thicker form of spaghetti, while spaghettini is a thinner form. Capellini is a very thin spaghetti, while vermicelli refers to intermediate thicknesses.
Originally, spaghetti was notably long, but shorter lengths gained in popularity during the latter half of the 20th century and now it is most commonly available in 25–30 cm (10–12 in) lengths. A variety of pasta dishes are based on it and it is frequently served with tomato sauce, meat or vegetables.
Spaghetti is the plural form of the Italian word spaghetto, which is a diminutive of spago, meaning 'thin string' or 'twine'.[1]
Some historians think that Arabs introduced pasta to Europe during a conquest of Sicily. In the West, it may have first been worked into long, thin forms in Sicily around the 12th century, as the Tabula Rogeriana of Muhammad al-Idrisi attested, reporting some traditions about the Kingdom of Sicily.[5]
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The popularity of spaghetti spread throughout Italy after the establishment of spaghetti factories in the 19th century, enabling the mass production of spaghetti for the Italian market.[6]
Spaghetti is made from ground grain (flour) and water.[7] Whole-wheat and multigrain spaghetti are also available.[3]
Pasta can be made at home, cutting sheets of flattened dough with a knife into ribbons,[8] rather than spaghetti with circular cross-section. Some pasta machines have a spaghetti attachment with circular holes that extrude spaghetti, or shaped rollers that form cylindrical noodles.[9]
Spaghetti can be made by hand by manually rolling a ball of dough on a surface to make a long sausage shape. The ends of the sausage are pulled apart to make a long thin sausage. The ends are brought together and the loop pulled to make two long sausages. The process is repeated until the pasta is sufficiently thin. The pasta knobs at each end are cut off leaving many strands which may be hung up to dry.[10]
Fresh spaghetti is usually cooked within hours of being formed. Commercial versions of fresh spaghetti are manufactured.[11]
The bulk of dried spaghetti is produced in factories using auger extruders. While essentially simple, the process requires attention to detail to ensure that the mixing and kneading of the ingredients produces a homogeneous mix, without air bubbles. The forming dies have to be water cooled to prevent spoiling of the pasta by overheating. Drying of the newly formed spaghetti has to be carefully controlled to prevent strands sticking together, and to leave it with sufficient moisture so that it is not too brittle. Packaging for protection and display has developed from paper wrapping to plastic bags and boxes.[12]
Fresh or dry spaghetti is cooked in a large pot of salted, boiling water and then drained in a colander (Italian: scolapasta).
In Italy, spaghetti is generally cooked al dente (lit. 'to the tooth'), fully cooked but still firm to the bite. It may also be cooked to a softer consistency.
Spaghettoni is a thicker spaghetti which takes more time to cook. Spaghettini is a thinner form which takes less time to cook. Capellini is a very thin form of spaghetti which cooks very quickly.
Utensils used in spaghetti preparation include the spaghetti scoop and spaghetti tongs.
An emblem of Italian cuisine, spaghetti is frequently served with tomato sauce, which may contain various herbs (especially oregano and basil), olive oil, meat or vegetables. Other spaghetti preparations include amatriciana or carbonara. Grated hard cheeses, such as pecorino romano, Parmesan, and Grana Padano, are often sprinkled on top.
Below are some of the most important spaghetti dishes:
In the Philippines, a popular variant is the Filipino spaghetti, which is distinctively sweet with the tomato sauce sweetened with banana ketchup or sugar. It typically uses a large amount of giniling (ground meat), sliced hot dogs, and cheese. The dish dates back to the period between the s to the s. During the American Commonwealth Period, a shortage of tomato supplies in the Second World War forced the development of the banana ketchup.[17][18][19] Spaghetti was introduced by the Americans and was tweaked to suit the local Filipino predilection for sweet dishes.[20]
Sapaketti phat khi mao (spaghetti fried drunken noodle style) is a popular dish in Thai cuisine.[21]
Spaghetti is a main part of laksa Johor, a specialty from Johor, Malaysia.[22]
By , annual consumption of spaghetti in Italy doubled from 14 kilograms (31 lb) per person before World War II to 28 kilograms (62 pounds).[23] By that year, Italy produced 1,432,990 tons of spaghetti, of which 74,000 were exported, and had a production capacity of 3 million tons.[23]
Pasta provides carbohydrates, along with some protein, iron, dietary fiber, potassium, and B vitamins.[27] Pasta prepared with whole wheat grain provides more dietary fiber[27] than that prepared with degermed flour.
Poorly structured computer source code is often described as spaghetti code.[28]
In women's clothing, very thin straps supporting a dress or topwear are called "spaghetti straps".[29]
The term spaghetti Western was used by American critics and those in other countries because most of the Western movies made in Europe were produced and directed by Italians.[30]
In the animated movie Lady and the Tramp, the sequence of the title characters sharing a plate of spaghetti—climaxed by an accidental kiss as they swallow opposite ends of the same strand of spaghetti—is considered an iconic scene in American film history.[31]
The BBC television program Panorama featured a hoax program about the spaghetti harvest in Switzerland on April Fools' Day in .[32]
Media related to Spaghetti at Wikimedia Commons The dictionary definition of spaghetti at Wiktionary
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