Pasta

April 29, 2021

For many the word “cheese” is followed in a nanosecond by the word “pasta”. Indeed, the two are the best of friends in the culinary world and one just does not seem comfortable on a plate without the company of the other. Which brings us to a few things you probably did not know about our friend pasta….

  1. ‘Spaghetto’ is the singular word for spaghetti. Generally speaking, Italian words ending in “o” are singular and words ending in “i” are plural.
  2. Before machinery, pasta was kneaded by foot. Because pasta dough is tough, workers would walk over batches of dough to work the texture.
  3. There are about 350 named shapes of pasta. The list includes “little tongues” (lingune), “large tubes” (cannellone), and “big snails” (lumaconi).
  4. Most dried pastas are made with just two ingredients: semolina flour and water. (Fresh pasta, a few dried types, and egg noodles use eggs).

Trivia aside, pasta has become a world-wide staple and a canvas for simple to complex menus. October 25th is World Pasta Day and January 4th is National Spaghetti Day. I don’t know about you, but there are already ‘special events’ flags on my calendar!!

__________________

I leave you with a quick glimpse of how to stage a beautiful presentation of spaghetti. Just don’t forget the Reggiano 🙂