It’s helpful to have a basic understanding of the many types of short pasta. There are three main types.
- Tubular
- Shaped
- Stuffed
Tubular
Tubular pasta can be tiny to jumbo sized. It can also be smooth or ridged and straight cut or diagonal. This type of pasta is good for heavy sauces. It is able to hold more sauce because of it’s uneven shape and size. Also the sauce can sneak right inside the tube so you get even more sauce with each mouthful.
- Small – Ditalini are tiny short tubes that are good to use in soups or broths. Pastina is even smaller and is often the first pasta that small children are fed. Orzo is shapped like a grain of rice and is often combined with rice to make rice pilaf.
- Large – Manicotti or large shells are an example of large tubes. They are usually stuffed with a ricotta blend of cheese.
- Smooth or Ridged – Macaroni is pasta made with semolina and water, without eggs. It contains many different shapes such as elbow, penne, rigatoni and ziti. Elbow and ziti are smooth. Rigatoni is ridged and penne can be both smooth or ridged.
Shaped
There are many fancy shapes of pasta. Farfalle means butterfly, but it is better know as bowties. Fusilli is a corkscrew type of pasta as is the spiral rotini and children all love wagon wheels. Gemelli is two pieces of round pasta twisted together.
Stuffed
A familiar stuffed pasta is ravioli. It looks like a little pasta pillow and can be round or square. It is stuffed with meat, cheese, seafood or vegetables. Tortellini are bite sized stuffed pasta. They are sometimes served in soups. Gnocchi are basically dumplings made with flour, semolina and potatoes. They are served as a side dish with butter and grated cheese.
When you cook your pasta, remember to use lots of water, about 4 quarts to 1 pound of pasta. Remember to add salt to the water. It really enhances the flavor of the pasta and don’t cook it too long; it should be “al dente” or firm to the tooth. Serve your pasta dish in a beautiful hand painted pasta bowl and enjoy your dinner!
Stephanie
Italian Nonna
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