PASTA

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PASTA
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Pasta

• Made from any of several varieties of durum wheat
  that thrive in dry climates, pasta has become one
  of the world's most popular foods.
• It comes in many different shapes and sizes
• The basic dough can be combined with other
  ingredients and sauces
• Pasta can be used as an appetiser, starter,
  accompaniment or main course
• It can be bought fresh or dried
• It does not take long to cook

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• Say pasta and everyone thinks Italian.
  However, pasta is used in many other European and
  Asian cuisines. North America has contributed
  pasta salads and other modern dishes.
• Popular history says that pasta was invented in
  China, and that Marco Polo brought the knowledge
  of this food back to Venice. The
• spaghetti Polo came across in the far
  east
• was made from either rice flour or
  hard
• wheat flour.

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Types of pasta

• Fresh pasta made at home is usually either
• cut into noodles that are boiled and served with
  a sauce
• or
• Shaped with a stuffing
• Extruded pastas such as spaghetti, macaroni,
  shells and twists are made commercially and sold
  dried

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Short, shaped pasta

• Good with many dishes meat, fish and vegetable
• Good in salads
• Catch plenty of sauce
• Macaroni penne (quills) fusilli (twirls)
  conchiglie (shells) farfalle (butterflies)

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Layered and stuffed pasta

• Several different shapes ideal for filling and
  baking.
• Lasagne (sheets) cannelloni (big pipes) ravioli
  (pillows) tortellini (twisted stuffed pastas)

Dumplings
Italian style dumplings or gnocchi are made with
semolina (or flour) and baked.
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Cheese and pasta

• Four Italian cheeses are commonly used with
  pasta
• 1. Parmesan a hard cheese made from cows milk.
  Aged at least 2 years to give a nutty piquant
  taste. Expensive so is used grated, a little goes
  a long way in flavouring sauces, stuffings and
  sprinkled on top of cooked pasta.

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Cheese and pasta

• 2. Ricotta good used in stuffings as it holds
  other ingredients together and adds body to the
  mixture. It has a light, slightly granular
  texture and mild taste. Cottage cheese puréed
  with a little cream could be used as a
  substitute.

Cottage cheese
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Cheese and pasta

• 3. Mozarella made from cows milk. True
  mozarella is made from buffalo cows milk. Known
  as the king of cheeses for melting on top of
  baked pastas. Mild flavour. Italian Fontina, Bel
  Paese or any other mild, soft French cheeses can
  be used as a substitute.

Bel paese
Fontina
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Cheese and pasta
4. Gorgonzola blue veined. Crumbled into
fillings or melted into sauces to add richness
and a salty tang. Similar types include
Roquefort, Danish blue, and creamy but mild
Bresse bleu.
Roquefort
Bresse bleu
Danish blue
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• Pasta is designed to be mixed with other
  ingredients.
• In its simplest form it can be tossed with melted
  butter or olive oil, together with freshly ground
  pepper and perhaps some chopped herbs.
• It can be coloured and enriched with tomato,
  spinach, squid ink, carrot and beetroot.
• When poultry, meat or fish is added pasta becomes
  a much more substantial dish, providing protein,
  fibre and complex carbohydrates.

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macaroni
vermicelli
capellini
rigatoni
spaghetti
penne
lasagne
cannelloni
tagliatelle
linguine
fettuccine
ravioli
gnocchi
farfalle
tortellini
conchiglie
fusilli