Beyond Spaghetti: A Pasta Primer
Incredibly versatile pasta can be prepared in a variety of mouth-watering ways
For [shaped pastas], you're better off having a slightly thicker sauce. It gets in the holes, while with linguine I like to use a lighter sauce so the noodles still slide around on each other, and it doesn't go into a big gloop.
— Dale MacKay, executive chef and proprietor of Ensemble Restaurant
Twirl it, slurp it, chomp it, scoop it -- there might be 100 ways to eat pasta, but there are an infinite number of colorful ways to mix and match its shapes and flavors with scrumptious sauces.
You don't have to be a professional chef to cook a quick and tasty pasta dish. As long as you know how to boil water, pasta can be a fun and easy meal to serve on the fly. If you want to add a personal touch, there's plenty of room for experimentation.
Noodles Come in All Shapes and Sizes
Long pasta ranges from plain-Jane but popular spaghetti strings to the super-thin strands of capellini, also known as angel hair, or "thin hair" in Italian, the language from which many pasta names derive. Linguine's name reflects its shape, like narrow, flat tongues. Spaghettini is thinner than spaghetti, but not as thin as capellini; and lasagna is a large, flat noodle that can be layered in a dish with a variety of fillings.
Then there are the fun-shaped noodles. Fusilli pasta consists of spirals that look like corkscrews; conchiglie, from the Italian word for "seashell," resembles its Italian namesake; farfalle, or "butterfly," is shaped like bow ties; macaroni is half-moon tubes; and lumache is like macaroni, except that it's curled up like a snail's shell.
Some pasta shapes are intended to be stuffed with meat, veggie or cheese fillings. Ravioli is a flat, square pasta with scalloped edges; tortellini resembles half-circles joined at the tips; and cannelloni is a large, cylinder-like pasta.
Pasta Perfection
Traditionally, the dry pasta you find in grocery stores is made with water and flour. Semolina, a coarse flour made from durum wheat, is often used and can be replaced with soy or whole wheat. Dale MacKay, executive chef and proprietor of Vancouver's Ensemble Restaurant, stands by double-zero flour.
"Semolina is a little more rustic," MacKay said. "For the type of pasta we do, we do something a little more refined. We always use double-O flour, which is an Italian grade of flour. It's basically milled even more, so it's a super-super-fine flour. It's not all that common, but it definitely makes much more delicate and nice pasta."
Want to make memorable pasta dishes? Here's what the experts say. First, the pasta should be cooked al dente, which means "to the tooth" or "firm to bite," said Ryan Gauthier, executive chef for Vancouver's Glowbal restaurant chain, which includes the Italian Kitchen.
A great pasta dish matches the right sauce to the right noodle. "Spaghetti is traditionally eaten with Bolognese sauce or meatballs," Gauthier said. "Fettuccine is traditionally eaten with a cream sauce or clam sauce (vongole).
"A hollow, noodle-like penne is traditionally eaten with pesto or pomodoro sauce. And the pappardelle noodle, which is a thick and broad noodle, is usually served with a ragout-style sauce."
For MacKay's money, shaped pastas go better with a specific type of sauce. "You're better off having a slightly thicker sauce," MacKay said. "It gets in the holes, while with linguine I like to use a lighter sauce so the noodles still slide around on each other and it doesn't go into a big gloop."
Going Upscale
Gauthier and MacKay agree that pasta is versatile enough to be glammed up to gourmet level. MacKay has made a squid ink ravioli with spot prawn filling. Tomato and basil make another popular pasta flavor.
"At the Italian Kitchen, we make a variety of pastas," Gauthier explained. "Our Kobe meatball with truffle spaghetti is a favorite. We make a lamb sausage pappardelle, which is a lighter, clear sauce with cabbage and fingerling potatoes.
"One of my favorites that we make is the roasted chicken garganelli. It has a rich, deep, roasted chicken stock sauce with sun-dried tomatoes and peas. We also have the traditional pastas like linguini carbonara, spaghetti Bolognese and rigatoni pomodoro."
Gauthier acknowledges that pasta often gets a bad rap for being fattening. Although it's full of carbohydrates, if eaten in moderation it gives the body much-needed energy, especially important for athletic types. As with any dish, you can cook pasta with ingredients that are lower in cholesterol and fat, picking a fresh tomato sauce or pesto, for example, over a creamy fettuccine sauce.
There are thousands of ways to cook and serve pasta, but MacKay says there's one big no-no when it comes to the pasta that comes out of his kitchen:
"The only thing I completely disagree with is when fish is in pasta," MacKay said. Fish often ends up flaking apart and getting mushy when tossed in pasta, making for a dish that is unpalatable and visually unappetizing, he said. "Shellfish is borderline -- I love clams and mussels in pasta -- but fish is just the worst idea. That's the one thing I wouldn't put into pasta."
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