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Welcome to the Greenwood.Net Curiosity Corner
Pick you pasta
May 22, 2013
Question: Would you please tell me the differences among the various types of pasta? I get confused with all the names on the menu. (Asked by a confused column reader.)
Reply: Dear Confused: It's no wonder that you are. We are living in a high-tech pasta world these days. In previous times, life was simpler. We had spaghetti, macaroni and noodles, not pasta. Now pasta comes in various sizes, shapes and colors. They are, for the most part, made from a flour paste or dough made from semolina wheat. Here are a few of the major varieties:
Fettuccine ("little ribbons" in Italian) a flat, narrow noodle, sometimes made green by adding spinach to the dough.
Linguine ("little tongues") thin, narrow strips or rods, sometimes used in place of spaghetti.
Lasagna (or lasagne) flat, wide strips used to make a layered dish of the same name.
Manicotti ("little muffs" or "little sleeves") large, long tubes, which may be smooth or ridged, that are stuffed with cheese and baked.
Orzo rice-shaped pasta, often used in soups.
Ravioli ("little turnips") square casings that are filled with meat or cheese and commonly served in a tomato sauce.
Tortellini ("little twisted loaves of bread") small, ring-shaped casings, filled like ravioli and served in a sauce or soup.
Rigatoni ("to mark with lines") short, thick, ridged tubes served with sauces.
Rotelle ("little wheels") more like corkscrews or spirals than wheels.
Capellini ("fine hair") very thin rods, often used in place of spaghetti.
Capellini d'angeli ("angel hair") is even thinner than capellini.
Nocchi ("dumplings") shells used in casseroles and salads.
So, do you have all that? There are others, such as bow ties and wagon wheels, but these are pretty descriptive. Just to round things out for us older folk, spaghetti means "small cords" in Italian, macaroni (elbow if bent) comes down from the Greek "blessed cake," and noodles from the German "nudel."
We'll have a quiz on this next week.
C.P.S. (Curious Post Script): When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished by how much hed learned in seven years. Mark Twain
Curious about something? Send your questions to Dr. Jerry D. Wilson, College of Science and Mathematics, Lander University, Greenwood, SC 29649, or e-mail jerry@curiosity-corner.net. Selected questions will appear in the Curiosity Corner. For Curiosity Corner background, go to www.curiosity-corner.net.
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