Pasta

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Pasta, dry, unenriched Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)
Energy 370 kcal   1550 kJ
Carbohydrates     75 g - Starch  62 g - Sugars  2 g - Dietary fibre  3 g   Fat 1.5 g Protein 13 g Water 10 g Folate (Vit. B9)  18 μg  5%
Percentages are relative to US recommendations for adults. Source: USDA Nutrient database

Pasta is a type of food made from a dough using flour, water and/or eggs. The dough is shaped and can be stored. Pasta is boiled prior to consumption. There are many variations of shapes and ingredients that are all called pasta. A few examples include spaghetti (solid cylinders), macaroni (tubes or hollow cylinders), fusilli (swirls), and lasagna (sheets).

Pasta can also denote dishes in which pasta products are the primary ingredient, served with sauce or seasonings. The word comes from Italian pasta which shares its origins with "paste", meaning "dough", "pasta", or "pastry" as in "small cake". Since 1918 the English word "paste" is a synonym to the Italian pasta.^[1]

Contents 1 Ingredients 2 Preparation 3 History 4 Accompaniments 5 References 6 External links 7 See also

[edit] Ingredients

There are many ingredients that can be used to make pasta dough. They range from a simple flour and water mixture, to those that call for the addition of eggs, spices and cheeses to the dough.

Under Italian law, dry pasta can only be made from durum wheat semolina flour. This flour has a yellow tinge in color. Italian pasta is traditionally cooked al dente (Italian: "to the teeth", meaning not too soft). Abroad, dry pasta is frequently made from other types of flour (such as farina), but this yields a softer product, which cannot be cooked al dente.

Particular varieties of pasta may also use other grains and/or milling methods to make the flour. Some pasta varieties, such as Pizzoccheri, are made from buckwheat flour. Various types of fresh pasta include eggs (pasta all'uovo). Gnocchi are often listed among pasta dishes, although they are quite different in ingredients (mainly milled potatoes).

[edit] Preparation

Pasta can be made by hand but is more commonly made with special tools or machines. Extrusion tools force ingredients through holes in a plate known as a die. Lamination tools squeeze ingredients through rollers into sheets of a particular thickness, which are then cut by slitters.

[edit] History

Though the Chinese were eating noodles as long ago as 2000 BC (this is known thanks to the discovery of a well-preserved bowl of noodles over 4000 years old^[2]), the familiar legend of Marco Polo importing pasta from China is just that—a legend, whose origins lie not in Polo's Travels, but in the newsletter of the National Macaroni Manufacturers Association.^[3] The works of the 2nd century CE Greek physician Galen mention itrion, homogenous compounds made up of flour and water.^[4] The Jerusalem Talmud records that itrium, a kind of boiled dough,^[4] was common in Palestine from the 3rd to 5th centuries AD^[5] A dictionary compiled by the 9th century Syrian physician and lexicographer Isho bar Ali defines itriyya as stringlike pasta shapes made of semolina and dried before cooking, a recognizable ancestor of modern-day dried pasta.^[4]One form of itrion with a long history is laganum (plural lagana), which in Latin refers to a thin sheet of dough.^[6] In the 1st century BC work of Horace, lagana were fine sheets of dough which were fried^[7] and were an everyday food.^[6] Writing in the 2nd century Athenaeus of Naucratis provides a recipe for lagana which he attributes to the 1st century Chrysippus of Tyana: very fine sheets of a dough made of wheat flour and the juice of crushed lettuce, then flavored with spices and deep-fried in oil.^[6] An early 5th century cookbook describes a dish called lagana that consisted of several layers of rolled-out dough alternating with meat stuffing and baked in an oven, a recognizable ancestor of modern-day Lasagna.^[6]

Some have attributed the innovation of dried pasta, in the form of long thin noodles we use today (spaghetti) to the Arabs who populated Southern Italy (i.e. Sicily) around the 12th Century. Prior to this, Italians are said to have eaten their pasta freshly made (pasta fresca) in a gnocchi like form.

[edit] Accompaniments

Common pasta sauces in Northern Italy include pesto and ragù alla bolognese; in Central Italy, simple tomato sauce, amatriciana and carbonara, and in Southern Italy, spicy tomato, garlic, and olive oil based sauces, often paired with fresh vegetables or seafood. Varieties include puttanesca, spaghetti alla norma (tomatoes and eggplant), pasta con le sarde (fresh sardines, pine nuts, fennel and olive oil).

Fettuccine Alfredo, with cheese and butter, and spaghetti with tomato sauce with or without ground meat or meatballs are popular Italian-style dishes in the United States.

As pasta is introduced elsewhere in the world, it has been incorporated into a number of local cuisines that may have significantly different ways of preparations from those of its country of origin. In Hong Kong, the local Chinese has adopted pasta, primarily spaghetti and macaroni, as an ingredient in the Hong Kong-style Western cuisine. In the territory's Cha chaan tengs, pasta is cooked in water, and served in broth with ham or frankfurter sausages, peas, black mushrooms, and optionally eggs reminiscent of noodle soup dishes. This is often a course for breakfast or light lunch fare ^[8]. The method often involves cooking the pasta well beyond the al dente stage and washing the starches off the pasta after cooking, measures frowned upon in Italy or in Hong Kong's more authentic Italian eateries.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• How to cook pasta at fivemushrooms.com
• A short video showing how pasta is made on an industrial line
• Pasta shapes – history and an abridged list of pasta shapes.
• Pasta shapes – an illustrated list.
• Ravioli shapes – an illustrated list of ravioli shapes.
• History of Pasta – includes historic photographs of pasta manufacture and distribution.
• Information about Italian Pasta.

[edit] See also

• List of pasta
• Italian cuisine
• Cooking

v • d • e This article is part of the Cuisine series
Regional Cuisines	Asia · Europe · Caribbean · South Asia · Latin America · Middle East · North America · Africa · Other cuisines...
Foods	Bread · Pasta · Cheese · Rice · Sauces · Soups · Desserts · Herbs and spices - Other ingredients
Preparation techniques and cooking items	Techniques · Utensils · Weights and measures
See also	Kitchens · Meals · Wikibooks: Cookbook

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