Pasta is made with semolina flour. Noodles, on the other hand, are made from any kind of flour at all---including soft wheat, rice, millet, barley, buckwheat, soy, corn, potato, and even bean starch.
To make Pasta the semolina dough is rolled out and sliced or it is compacted and forced through perforated plates (dies) that form it into the desired shape. It is produced in the form of sheets, ribbons, cords, tubes, and other shapes, each with its own name. When making dried pasta, the formed dough is then dried under controlled conditions at a low temperature for several days until all the moisture has evaporated, allowing it to be stored almost indefinitely. Fresh pasta is made from a simple dough of eggs and flour, usually all-purpose flour or "00" high-gluten flour. The dough is kneaded like bread dough and then pressed through rollers until it's as thin as desired.
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one-pound box of pasta, or enough for six servings, must cook in at the very least five quarts of vigorously boiling, well salted water. Not enough water is a common mistake that leads to "stewed" rather than boiled pasta. (Stewed pasta will turn out gummy and overcooked) No salt and the pasta will taste flat, pasta like everything, needs to be seasoned to bring out its flavor.
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A frequent restaurant technique is to cook the pasta until it is within a minute or two of being done, drain it, toss it into hot sauce and then let it finish cooking in the sauce on the stove. In Italy, this is called ''pasta saltata in padella.'' Its purpose is to let the pasta absorb the flavors of the sauce.
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Pasta is traditionally associated with Italian cuisine, though it probably entered Europe from Asia during the Mongol invasions of the 13th century. Italians, it almost goes without saying, are the world champions of pasta consumption, averaging 60 pounds of pasta a year for every man, woman and child in the country.
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Italian pasta names often end with the masculine plural suffixes -ini, -elli, -illi, -etti or the feminine plurals -ine, -elle etc., all conveying the sense of "little"; or with -oni, -one, meaning "large". Many other suffixes like -otti ("largish") and -acci ("rough", "badly made") may occur, too. In Italian, all pasta type names are plural.
RIGATONIRigatoni is a form of tube-shaped pasta of varying lengths and diameters. It is larger than penne and ziti and sometimes slightly curved. Rigatoni is usually ridged, and the tube's end is square-cut like ziti, not diagonal like penne.
Let's go out for Pasta!If you love Pizza and Italian cuisine, you are in luck in SxM, which boasts a plethora of excellent italian eateries.
Below are two of my favorites, click their pic to see more about them or see our Italian & Pizza listings. |
LASAGNELasagna is both a type of noodle and a dish made with that noodle; when pluralized, lasagna noodles are known as “lasagne”. Lasagne are long, flat, broad noodles which are ideally suited to layering in a baking dish with an assortment of ingredients which may include meats, cheeses, and tomato sauce.
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SPAGHETTISpaghetti is an Italian word that literally means “little twines.” It is extruded in long, thin, cylindrical strings that are cut generally between 10 and 12 inches long. Spaghetti is the plural form of the Italian word spaghetto, which is a diminutive of spago, meaning "thin string" or "twine".
Spaghettoni is a thicker or longer spaghetti and Spaghettini are very thin spaghetti often called angel hair pasta. |