Pasta – from appetizer to dessert

The hundreds of diverse shapes and flavours of fresh or dried pasta make all kinds of meals possible - from appetizers to desserts.

Pasta is suitable for all flavours; it is a truly versatile food that does well with both sweet and salty, and hot and sour combinations. It is itself most often of a neutral flavour, and as such it can be seasoned as required or as the mood dictates, and with a little sweet cream, vanilla, and even chocolate sauce, can take the lead role in a dessert.

Economical, simple to prepare and store, readily digestible, versatile and tasty, pasta can be thought of as the "perfect food."

The hundreds of diverse shapes and flavours of fresh or dried pasta make all kinds of meals possible - from appetizers to desserts. It is most often enjoyed with a vegetable or meat sauce, in casseroles, soups and salads. Some types (anellini, conchigliette, ditali, farfalline, orzo, pastine, risi, stele, stortini, tubetti...) are not appropriate as main dishes, but appear only in supporting roles.

If you serve it only with a sauce, it is good to know what type, shape and flavour is best suited to a type of sauce. Creamy sauces with butter or other light sauces go best with tagliatelle, fettuccine and linguine; seafood is best suited to cappelini, linguine, thin spaghettis and vermicelli; strong sauces with chunky ingredients such as cubes of cooked vegetable, bolognese or meat-based ragù sauces will go well with rigatoni, macaroni, penne, conchiglie and fusilli, while we recommend farfalle or fusilli for light cheese or herbal sauces.

There are no limits

Pasta in salads work well both as hot and cold dishes. Hot pasta are topped with sausages, chicken, prosciutto, cooked vegetables and seafood; while cold pasta take well to fresh seasonal vegetables, avocado, anchovies, cheese, tuna, eggs...

To whet the appetite, a little pasta (such as fettuccine) covered in a light, aromatic sauce like pesto, or with coriander, or even with garlic and caviar, will do wonderfully. A meal can open with mini lasagnes, rolls with spinach or a few cannelloni filled with leak.

Classic clear vegetable (minestrone with conchiglie) or meat soups (or both), gain in fullness of flavour with the addition of pasta, and - by playing with the various shapes of small pastas (those that are smaller and firmer, and hold up well in liquid, not changing their shape) - in texture. Vermicelli (noodles) are best suited in clear and strained soups, while thicker soups and stews will be tastier with spiral-shapes pastas or rigatoni.

Like many other pasta-based meals, soups and salads offer many opportunities to make creative and tasty use of meat, fish and vegetable leftovers.

What could be said about main dishes other then there are practically no limits? Spaghetti with a meat sauce (ragù), carbonara, bolognese, mushrooms, tomato, vegetable or seafood sauce, lasagne with meat, cheese or vegetables, and filled pastas, such as tortellini, ravioli and cappelletti, or gnocchi with a cream sauce, will provide a filling and nutritious meal. Oriental recipes, such as wok noodles, salads with chicken and mangos and the like are growing in popularity.

Indispensable desserts

One of the best known of the sweet pasta-based desserts is the Portuguese aletria, which is made from thin noodles (vermicelli, Capelli d'Angeli) with eggs, lemon, sugar and milk. The Torta di Tagliatelle, a speciality of the city of Mantua, is garnished with almonds and sweet liqueur; the pastira is a macaroni cake with a sweet egg cream.

Romanian sweet pasta is made of pasta without eggs, maple syrup, walnuts, poppy seed and raisins, and then there is the well-known Viennese pudding with noodles and hazelnuts. Lasagnes can also be sweet, usually filled with ricotta, fruit and almonds.

Noodles and fusilli are most commonly used in sweet meals.

In culinary traditions around the world

Clear Chinese noodles known as glass noodles unlike Italian pasta, they are not made from grain, but of the starch derived from mung beans.

The Italian method of preparing pasta has been adopted around the world, but every country has its specific method in the preparation and combination of ingredients.

Morocco is known for its couscous (which can also be numbered among the pastas). A staple food of North African cuisine, couscous is enjoyed hot with a sauce or stew, and cold on a salad.

Clear Chinese noodles are known as Chinese vermicelli, glass noodles and bai fun. Unlike Italian pasta, they are not made from grain, but of the starch derived from mung beans. They are not cooked, and need only be soaked in boiling water.

A mixture of buckwheat and wheat flours, water and eggs, better known as Japanese soba noodles, is a popular addition to oriental soups. They are also prepared in woks, and in all of the ways one might otherwise prepare fettuccini and linguine.

Germany has its spaetzle, which is made of eggs, salt, flour, water or milk and nutmeg. To create its specific shape the pasta is forced through a special strainer, and is most often served as a side dish.