My inspiration for this post came from my dear, longtime blogging friend, Debbie @ Musings by an ND Domer's Mom, who is not only a gifted...
Perhaps it's because I was raised (both sides) in an Italian family, where pasta was a huge staple in our meals, that my love affair with it goes very deep.
Like most Italians, pasta is a GOD.
If I were ever stranded on a deserted tropical island with only one primary food ingredient, I would choose pasta because you can make it so many different ways and eat it hot or cold. But I would also hope to have a few pots and pans, as well as a big box of stick matches, so that I could start a fire to cook it because raw pasta would be useless. That is unless I used it to spell out the word HELP in the sand so that a plane flying by might rescue me. *just like I did in the picture above.
Whenever I go grocery shopping, I always pick up extra pasta and sauce to have on hand because if you have those two things, you can make a meal in a pinch. And no, I don't ever make my sauce from scratch because I'm tremendously lazy when it comes to cooking. Yet, I have discovered some amazing pre-made sauces that actually have a made-from-scratch taste.
During the spring and summer, I like to eat pasta both hot and cold (pasta salads). However, during the autumn and winter months, I prefer eating it hot.
I am open to trying different forms of pasta, but I do have some favorites because I especially like their shapes.
Listed below are four of those faves:
Spaghetti: The most famous cut of pasta, it pairs nicely with simple sauces like tomato. *Note: I eat spaghetti with a fork and a spoon.
Angel Hair: Like spaghetti, it is rod-shaped but much thinner and more delicate. I prefer angel hair when I’m in the mood to have pasta with olive oil, garlic, and grated cheese. When I was a kid and first heard the words angel hair pasta, I actually thought it came off an angels' head. Silly me.
Farfalle: These butterfly/bow tie shapes taste best with simple olive oil- or tomato-based sauces that may incorporate ingredients such as peppers and artichoke hearts. They are also great for pasta salad because the shape is fun and bite-sized. I like calling these "bow ties" because that's what they look like, a tuxedo bow tie.
But they also resemble the bow on Hello Kitty's head, and we all know how much I hate ANYTHING Hello Kitty so let's not even go there.
Fusilli: Thick, corkscrew shaped pasta. They are a good choice for thick and hearty sauces because all the “goodness” gets trapped inside the spiral. But they also go well in pasta salad. When I was a kid, I would call these CURLY Q's.
Penne: These small tubes may be smooth or ridged. Penne is best used in soups, pasta salads, and with thicker sauces and casseroles, as the ingredients and sauces can penetrate the inside of the pasta. When I was a kid, I called these PIPES and would blow my breath through them. And of course the tomato sauce would come flying out of them.
Oh, and just in case I ever get unlazy and decide to make my pasta sauce from scratch, I came up with a great name and packaging so that I can sell it on eBay for $2.95 a jar. What do ya think?
Have a pasta pizzazz weekend everyone!
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