Cookbook:Pasta
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Cookbook | Recipes | Ingredients
Pasta, or alimentary paste, is a class of foods made from an unleavened dough formed into a variety of shapes (most commonly, thin strips called "noodles"). It is a carbohydrate-rich basis for many meals.
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[edit] Varieties
Pasta comes in fresh and dried form. One is not necessarily better than the other. Dried pasta contains flour and water; fresh pasta also contains eggs. Egg noodles (fresh or dried) are always made with eggs.
Fresh pasta has a lighter flavor and a more tender bite, so it's better suited for more delicate sauces. Fresh pasta will keep for five days in the fridge; dried pasta and egg noodles will keep almost indefinitely at room temperature.
Pasta is available in various forms, all shaped from a basic thin sheet of pasta-dough. Some types are served with a sauce, while others are used in soups.
[edit] Cooking pasta
Both fresh and dried pasta are usually cooked by boiling in a large amount of water, which may be salted according to taste. Fresh pasta will cook in less than five minutes; dried pasta takes longer: 9 to 12 minutes, depending on the variety. If you are cooking an unfamiliar brand or variety, keep checking. Most people prefer pasta when it is al dente - that is when it still offers some resistance to the bite.
Consult the boiled pasta page for a more thorough explanation of how to cook pasta.
[edit] Flavoring
Plain pasta is usually bland. You may wish to flavor it with salt, olive oil, butter or a sauce. Tomato-based sauces are classically associated with Italian pasta dishes.
In some pastas the dough is flavoured or colored with an extra ingredient such as squid ink (for a black color), beet juice (for a vibrant red), tomato puree (for an orange tint) or spinach (for a green color). Pasta can also be flavoured with chile for a spicy kick, or with truffles, for the unique flavour that only truffles can bring to a dish.
[edit] Pasta recipes
[edit] Notes, tips and variations
- Pasta names ending in -ini refer to a small variety of some type of pasta, and those ending in -oni or -one refer to a large variety. For instance, farfallini are small farfalle and farfallone are large ones.
- When making a pasta sauce (whether based on tomatoes, cream, bechamel or just 'dry' vegetables), it's a good idea to add a couple of tablespoons of the sauce's cooking fat (usually butter or olive oil) to the pasta when tossing it.
- When incorporating a flavoring or coloring ingredient into pasta dough, it's important to take the water content into consideration. Beets, for instance, contain a lot of moisture, so less water should be added to the dough to compensate.
