High-quality real Italian pasta is prepared from durum wheat. This paste is useful for the body and is well digested. A special variety of hard wheat, from which the first pasta was made in Italy, was brought to the peninsula by Giuseppe Garibaldi from the Crimea. The first paste was distinguished by golden color and unique taste. Unfortunately, this variety of wheat is lost. But, if you properly prepare a modern pasta, it is not less tasty.
There is a classic recipe for pasta: one kilogram of pasta requires 10 liters of water. In salted boiling water put the pasta and cook until ready. Pasta is important not to digest, otherwise it loses its useful substances and loses its flavor. At home, it is possible not to observe such proportions of 1/10, but always remember that the pasta loves a lot of water.
But, a special taste of pasta in Italian, of course, give sauces. The sauce is prepared separately from the pasta and mixed with the pasta directly in a plate, or in a saucepan.
All varieties of pasta varieties are divided into two main types: fresh and dry pasta. All pasta, sold in stores, all kinds of shapes, colors and sizes are called dry paste. When stored correctly, dry paste retains its taste for a long time. It is beautiful in combination with heavy sauces.
A softer and delicate fresh pasta for spaghetti is produced in the form of coils of tapes, and it can be stored for no more than five days in a refrigerator. Fresh pasta perfectly absorbs moisture and combines with soft, light sauces.
In Italy, pasta is produced in various, bizarre forms. It is by the form of the paste that you can determine in which region or even the city of Italy it is made. Exotic form of the paste is obtained by using the pressing method in special matrices and shaped forms.
The most popular pasta in Italy is spaghetti. They produce three types: spaghetti, spaghettini, bucatini. To prepare soups and casseroles use a short paste of cylindrical shape.
Fettuccine - a strip of pasta is served with all kinds of tomato sauces, or with fish or cream sauces.
Lasagna and cannelloni - sheet paste is used to make casseroles.
"Angel hair" or Capellini very thin pasta, they look like spaghetti, but much thinner. Therefore, 2-3 minutes are prepared, thanks to this very special feature of fast cooking, they deserve great popularity. Serve them with sauces, olive oil, broth or boiled vegetables.
Penne - the average length of the tube, with lateral grooves, completely straight.
Rigatoni - short or long, tubules with grooves. But they are wider than a penne, served with thick sauces.
Manicotti - pasta stuffed with meat or cheese fillings. They are wider and longer than Penne.
"Large reed" or Cannelloni the longest tube. The peculiarity of them is that together with a meat or cheese filling they are baked under sauce
One of the most popular and famous in Italy, and throughout the world dish - Lasagna. Although lasagna is called not only a dish, but also the sheets of dough from which it is prepared. This dish is prepared as follows: the layers of dough alternate with the layers of the filling and fill with sauce, then baked lasagna in the oven. As a filling for lasagna use vegetables, spinach and salmon, tomatoes with minced meat, or onions with cream. But, the most popular is lasagna with parmesan cheese.
A flattened little paste, longer than spaghetti, is called - Linguini . Prepare it as well as prepare as spaghetti - not breaking. Lingvini with seafood is one of the popular recipes in Italy.
"The navel of Venus" or Tortellini, this is what the Italians call dumplings or small-sized dumplings with connected ends. As a stuffing for them use vegetables, cottage cheese, meat, cheese.
"Little Gnocchi " Gnocchi with a filling of cheese, potatoes or mango with spinach like, like all pastes in Italy. I serve them with spicy sauce or parmesan cheese.
Squares from dough with stuffing - ravioli . they are served to a table of lido baked in the oven with cream, cheese or tomato sauce. Or immediately after cooking hot.
Small pasta in the form of a crescent or a square - Agnolotti is stuffed with cheese, spinach, meat or cottage cheese. Eat Agnolotti only hot with the addition of sauces.
Choose a paste.
* Quality pasta does not stick together. It is dense in consistency and has a bright amber color. If the paste sticks together, it is not suitable for cooking.
* Light nutty taste is a hallmark of quality pasta.
* Pasta, should slightly spring, only in this case it fits well with sauces.
Although in Italy itself produces about seven hundred kinds of pasta, and produce it more than two thousand enterprises, the best consider pasta made at home by hand. At home, pasta is cooked for about a day, while in production conditions it takes several hours to make pasta. In the most expensive Italian restaurants, pasta made at home is served. Their orders wait for the restaurant up to 2-3 months, and despite such difficulties, the popularity of "home" pasta only grows.
If you happen to eat black paste, do not be surprised, it will blacken your teeth and tongue. Popular at the present time are multi-colored pastes. An evil color gives macaroni spinach, purple is obtained by adding beet juice, the pumpkin colors the paste in orange, and the carrot gives it a red tint. Ink of cuttlefish and squid color black pasta.
As already mentioned, spaghetti is recognized as the most popular pasta in Italy. The diameter of these pasta is about 2 millimeters, the pancake is slightly larger than 15 centimeters. The first spaghetti was made in Genoa. Therefore, after visiting Italy, you should definitely look into the spaghetti museum in the city of Genoa. The museum has hundreds of spices, sauces and spaghetti, hundreds of recipes of condiments and sauces. Pasta and spaghetti bolognese with minced meat and tomato sauce, with ham and cream are prepared spaghetti carbonara, with tomato sauce spaghetti called spaghetti - in Neapolitan.