Pasta

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The English word pasta generally refers to noodles and other food products made from a flour and water paste, often including also egg and salt. Less frequently, the term macaroni is used for the same products.

Pasta can also denote dishes in which pasta products are the primary ingredient, served with sauce or seasonings. The word comes from Italian pasta which means basically "paste", and by extension "dough", "pasta", or "pastry" as in "small cake". As recently as 1918 the English word "paste" was used instead of or alongside the Italian pasta[1]. Today the word "pasta" is reserved for Italian-style noodles in English-speaking countries, while the word "noodle" has a more general meaning.

Dried Italian-style pasta is made from durum wheat semolina or flour, which gives it a light yellow color. Asian-style noodles as well as most fresh noodles are made from regular (non-durum) wheat flour. Some pasta varieties, such as Pizzoccheri, are made from buckwheat flour.

Gnocchi are often listed among pasta dishes, although they are quite different in ingredients (mainly milled potatoes) and mode of preparation.

Pasta is made either by extrusion, where the ingredients are forced through holes in a plate known as a die, or by lamination, in which dough is kneaded, folded, rolled to thickness, then cut by slitters. Fresh Pasta cooks quickly and has a delicate taste, but spoils quickly due to its high water content. Dry Pasta generally contains about 7% moisture, which makes it shelf stable for about a year.

Most people today like pasta because of its easy and fast preparation, as well as tastiness. Pastas only need to be boiled and topped, a process that can take as little as fifteen minutes. There are a number of ways to flavor pasta, many of which are commonly used cooking ingredients. Pasta is very versatile and almost impossible to to ruin.

Contents

History

Image:PortoVenere Pasta.jpg

Pasta was developed independently in a number of places around the globe (though some anthropologists dispute this). In each of these places, locally available grain was the primary starch source in the diet. Grains had, before the invention of pasta, been consumed as a gruel or grain paste, or rendered into flour and eaten as bread. Pasta noodles were likely developed as an alternative to gruel or bread. Pasta noodles can be created even where there is no oven, or not enough fuel to support an oven. In contrast, bread requires a great investment in time and effort to create. In terms of outcome for the effort, pasta is therefore significantly simpler than bread, as any place that something can be kept dry, one can have pasta noodles.

The earliest known records of noodles in Europe are found on Etruscan tomb decorations from the 4th century BC. Actual pasta dating back to about 2000 BC has been found near Lajia at the Huang He in Western China. The site was devastated by an earthquake followed by a flood. The yellow noodles survived in an upside down clay pot underneath a thick layer of loess. Archeologist Houyuan Lu discovered the noodles and was able to take some photos. Analysis showed that the noodles with a length of ca. 1/2 meter and a diameter of 3 mm were produced from millet.

Utensils that are thought to have been used to make pasta were also found in the ruins of Pompeii, where other Chinese objects were found, the silk road having extended to Rome in 30 BC. Thus, we know the popular legend of Marco Polo bringing back pasta to Italy from China is absolutely false - though he certainly may have brought back an assortment of Chinese noodle recipes then unheard of in Europe with him. Note, however, that Chinese noodles before the age of industrialized food production were always used fresh, and they are comprised of one giant noodle mass through the cooking process because it is considered bad luck in China to cut noodles before serving them to eat.

Thomas Jefferson is credited with bringing the first macaroni machine to America in 1789 when he returned home after serving as ambassador to France.

Accompaniments

Common pasta sauces in northern Italy include pesto (a green sauce, made from basil, pine nuts, olive oil, garlic and parmesan cheese) and also bolognese (a ground beef sauce); in central Italy tomato sauce (a red tomato-based sauce), and amatriciana (a red tomato/wine based sauce, usually including onion and bacon strips). Pasta sauces that are rarely eaten by Italians but are popular outside Italy include alfredo (a white cream sauce), and spaghetti with meatballs and tomato sauce.

In Italy, pasta with sauce (sugo) is often called "pastasciutta" ("asciutta" means "dry," indicating that the pasta is not served in broth).

Pasta varieties

While the only basic difference between these names is the shape of the pasta, each pasta is typically matched with a particular sauce based on cooking time, consistency, ability to hold sauce, ease of eating etc. In the same way that you wouldn't put a hamburger inside a hotdog bun, likewise, you wouldn't make pasta amatriciana, for example, with angel hair spaghetti, but with bucatini. Some pasta varieties are uniquely regional and not diffused throughout Italy. The most common varieties are in bold.

Image:Pasta.jpg

Shaped pasta

Tubular pasta

Strand noodles

  • Angel Hair - thicker than capellini
  • Barbina - thin strands often coiled into nests
  • Capellini - even thinner than angel hair; thinnest spaghetti-like noodle
  • Chitarra - similar to spaghetti, except square rather than round
  • Ciriole - thicker version of chitarra
  • Fedelini - thinner than spaghettini
  • Fusilli lunghi - very long fusilli
  • Pici - very thick, found in Tuscany
  • Spaghetti - long, round, and thin. Thicker than spaghettini
  • Spaghettini - thinner than spaghetti, thicker than fedelini
  • Strangozzi - square in cross section
  • Vermicelli - thinner or thicker (in Italy) than spaghetti

Ribbon pasta noodles

Micro pasta

Stuffed pasta

Commercial pasta

See also

External links

Wikibooks Cookbook has more about this subject:
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