Pasta comes in an amazing variety of shapes and forms, which can be sauced in an equally varied number of ways, from refreshing pesto to hearty meat or Alfredo. And then there are the stuffed and baked varieties, gnocchi, and sauces that will work well in other parts of the meal...
There's no set recipe for pasta alla primavera: One makes it by selecting the vegetables one likes from what are available. Some people use zucchini, other asparagus, tomatoes, or eggplant, and so on. What do you put into your primavera sauce?
Some call the sugo they put over their pasta sauce, and others gravy. What do you call it?
Pasta: Sauce or Gravy? Or ragú? No matter what you call it, it's satisfying.
Almost every region of Italy has some form of stuffed pasta. A quick overview and many recipes.
As anyone who visits Italy rapidly realizes, pasta may be the national dish, but it's not a monolith: In adapting it to suit local traditions and ingredients, the cooks of the Peninsula have produced an infinite variety of forms and preparation methods. This is especially true for baked pasta, where the kind of pasta used and the sauces used to season it vary greatly from place to place.
From pot to plate in a few quick, easy steps.
Given the current crisis, people are looking for ways to save, and cooking pasta in less water is one possibility. It works, though the texture of the pasta cooked this way is less chewy than that cooked in the standard gallon of boiling water per pound of pasta.
Making pasta at home takes effort, but can be lots of fun.
Most of these sauces will also work very well with gnocchi or polenta. The categories aren't hard-and-fast (egg is with meat, for example), but should help you find what you're looking for.
Cooking pasta is quick enough, and easy enough, that one can reduce the process to a quick set of steps. However, as with all simple things, there's more to the subject if you look at it closely, and if you keep a few simple rules in mind you will achieve much better results.
Pasta comes in all sorts of shapes, which are similar but not completely interchangeable. A photographic golssary, with recipe suggestions for the various kinds.
Lasagna is the best-known baked pasta, but there's quite a bit of variety: timballos, timpanos, and much more.
Baking pasta in an aluminum foil packet may sound odd, but it's guaranteed to stun your guests. And romantic as well.
Refreshing when it's hot, and perfect at a picnic or barbecue.
They're easy to make, and extremely varied.
There are a great many kinds of pasta in Italy. Here's an expanding list of the most popular kinds, with suggested recipes, possible substitutions, and alternate names for them.
