Pasta types
Pasta types: there are many types of dry pasta, so as fresh ones. Usually what changes is the pasta shapes, as the dough is basically the same.
Pasta is amongst the most common dishes all around the world, probably because pasta dough recipe is made of only flour and water and the Italian pasta recipes are often healthy and quick to prepare.
The first reference to pasta that we have tells of a big "gnocco" (dumpling) that was placed in the sun to dry and needed more than 2 hours to be cooked!
Later, people began to divide it into smaller pieces, which could be cooked in less time.
In the beginning, it was like bread. The only difference was the yeast. If added, it became bread, if not, it became pasta.
The most known amongst pasta types is spaghetti. It was invented in Naples, Italy and as there was no cutlery, it was caught with fingers, raised and then introduced into the mouth.
As time passed by, it became easier to produce it in different shapes and ways, even though the main recipe was always flour and water, sometimes with eggs added.
There are different types of pasta that contain spinach, mushrooms, cuttlefish ink and other ingredients that give them different colours. The authentic Italian lasagna is a great example of a traditional Italian food that may have variations, even if it keeps its main characteristics even from region to region.
There are some ancient recipes, like fregola sarda, that would be difficult to make as they come from the Arabians who colonized Sardinia. This kind of pasta was prepared by putting the wheat on the table and then spraying it with water and quickly shaping it with fingers. Today it can be found in markets, but it is really difficult to make at home.
The main pasta recipe is basically the same for all. Often the difference is its shape, or in how much water we used, depending on what we want to do.
Pasta types are quite infinite and Barilla industry has some shapes designed even by designers!
How to make pasta at home? Nowadays, with the pasta machines, you can make the basic pasta dough and then choose the shape you prefer.
Most of the time, when we talk about pasta recipies, we don’t mean the pasta types, but the sauces to dress it. Here we really have a lot of choices and it is interesting to take a look at our pasta cooking tips, because some pasta is more suitable for different seasonings. Click here to go to Italian pasta recipes page.
