Originally published at: The stories behind 15 pasta shapes | Boing Boing
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Very interesting article MissCellania. I was pleased to see mention of Giugiaro’s Marille. I recall years ago when it was introduced but never could find it. Now I know why. I used to know a woman who referred to Orecchiette as “little diaphrams” . I guess that works, too
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Sat down with a plate of corkscrew pasta for lunch, clicked on an article to read…
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The Sporkful is doing a five-part series where they go through the process of creating a new pasta shape. There are some interesting facts on how pasta is created.
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It was in Italy that pasta was made into an art form
I understand that the above sentence is regarding pasta shapes, but it comes across as a questionable statement. There is a lot of skill and artistry in how all the different kinds of noodles are made and prepared.
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Prisencolinensinainciusol & pasta shapes, now that’s a spicy meatball.
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I was going to say this but you beat me to it. Tell me this isn’t extreme artistry: https://youtu.be/f2kesmAO8VU
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Spoiler:
It’s farfalle.
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I’d go beyond ‘questionable’ to say it’s explicitly Eurocentric. And wrong.
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There are no bad pasta shapes, only less than ideal sauce pairings.
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I hope that’s eaten with a tomato based sauce…
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Traditionally an extra-creamy alfredo sauce.
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Very interesting, the varieties in Italian pasta seem to be endless, and apparently often several names for the same pasta shape do exist. I’ve known the cavatappi / cellentani® as “drelli”.
One of my favourites are fusili bucati corti, which resemble delicious short telephone cords.
The ways how pasta is formed are fascinating. I’ve seen old ladies in the streets of Bari making orecchiette by hand, each single piece formed by a sleight of hand in a quick short movement.
I was hoping for more details on strozzapreti, but maybe there is just no more to it than the legend of the choking priest. Interestingly, the ottoman kitchen knows a dish with a somewhat similar backstory: İmam bayıldı, which, if I am not mistaken, means “The imam fainted”. Now I wonder if there are more dishes with a (stereotypically gluttonous) cleric as a namesake?
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(Farfalle, perhaps obviously, is Italian for ‘butterfly.’)
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Ok, I’ve got a love/hate relationship with it - depending on the sauce. If a dish goes wrong, I quote Gino:
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Origin of “bag of dicks” as suggested meal for Horrible People?
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a new tubular, corkscrew-shaped pasta called Cellentani.
I’ve always thought of fusilli as being the corkscrew-shaped pasta, whereas this is more spring-shaped.
No - farfalle is a great shape with a creamy sauce - and if anyone reads the linked article, far from determining that it is the worst shape, it concludes:
The result is a velvety coating on all of the tiny butterflies, and a flavor that feels both light and rich, with a fresh punch from the tarragon.
Lesson learned: Don’t knock a pasta until you’ve prepared it using a tried and true recipe from the motherland.
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One of the first things I learned living in a Eurocentric Montreal neighbourhood was that pasta is soft before you cook it, unless it has gone stale. Truth. Fresh pasta tastes so much better.
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