Everything about Pasta totally explained
Pasta is an
Italian food made from a
dough using
flour,
water and/or
eggs.
There are approximately 350 different
shapes of pasta. A few examples include
spaghetti (solid
cylinders),
macaroni (
tubes or hollow cylinders),
fusilli (swirls),
lasagna (sheets), and
gnocchi (balls), although this is considered a separate dish by some. The two basic styles of pasta are dried and fresh. There are also variations in the ingredients used in pasta. The time for which pasta can be stored varies from days to years depending upon whether the pasta is made with egg or not, and whether it's dried or fresh. Pasta is
boiled prior to consumption.
The word,
pasta, can also denote dishes in which pasta products are the primary ingredient, served with sauce or seasonings.
Ingredients
There are many ingredients that can be used to make pasta dough. They range from a simple flour and water mixture, to those that call for the addition of eggs, spices and cheeses, or even
squid ink to the dough.
Under Italian law, dry pasta can only be made from
durum wheat or
semolina flour. Durum flour has a yellow tinge in color. Italian pasta is traditionally cooked
al dente (Italian: "to the tooth", meaning not too soft). Abroad, dry pasta is frequently made from other types of flour (such as
farina), but this yields a softer product, which can't be cooked
al dente.
Particular varieties of pasta may also use other grains and/or milling methods to make the flour. Some pasta varieties, such as
Pizzoccheri, are made from
buckwheat flour. Various types of fresh pasta include
eggs (
pasta all'uovo).
Gnocchi are often listed among pasta dishes, although they're quite different in ingredients (mainly milled
potatoes).
Preparation
Pasta can be made by hand but is more commonly made with special tools or machines.
Extrusion tools force ingredients through holes in a plate known as a
die. Lamination tools squeeze ingredients through rollers into sheets of a particular thickness, which are then cut by slitters.
History
Though the Chinese were eating
noodles as long ago as 2000
BC (this is known thanks to the discovery of a well-preserved bowl of noodles over 4000 years old), the familiar legend of
Marco Polo importing pasta from
China is just that—a legend, whose origins lie not in Polo's
Travels, but in the newsletter of the National Macaroni Manufacturers Association. The works of the 2nd century CE Greek physician
Galen mention
itrion, homogeneous compounds made up of flour and water. The
Jerusalem Talmud records that
itrium, a kind of boiled dough, A dictionary compiled by the 9th century Syrian physician and lexicographer Isho bar Ali defines
itriyya as stringlike pasta shapes made of semolina and dried before cooking, a recognizable ancestor of modern-day dried pasta. In the 1st century BC work of Horace,
lagana were fine sheets of dough which were fried and were an everyday food.. The method often involves cooking the pasta well beyond the
al dente stage and washing the starches off the pasta after cooking, measures frowned upon in Italy or in Hong Kong's more authentic Italian eateries.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Pasta'.
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