Types and Shapes of Pasta

TYPES AND SHAPES OF PASTA

WHAT IS PASTA?
Pasta is a carbohydrate which means it contains starch. This is a slow energy so that the energy is released slower. It also has proteins so it will build your muscles. And it can be made from about any grain. In the USA it is usually made these days from wheat flour, but any source of flour will do.

Pasta was discovered by Marco Polo (an Italian explorer) when he went to China he discovered noodles and brought them back from China (or so the story goes).

Pasta can also add colors depending on the type of ingredients you add. For example, if you add squid ink you can get black pasta. If you add (green) vegetables, you can get green colored pasta.

There are many more shapes to make pasta in, like more than in the preceding image. Your imagination is the limit as the old saying goes.

And last one can rehydrate the pasta (which is generally hard as rocks (and crunchy when you gnaw on it) when you get it at the grocery store) with water. Or one can use the juices in the meal to soak into the pasta and eat it that way, too.  It is kind of like using it as a thickener, so be careful how much you use.

Two  examples:

1)      Consider adding some kind of pasta shapes and colors to a wedding soup if you judge it needs some thickening up.

2)      Instead of boiling spaghetti pasta in water and serving it under spaghetti sauce (a fine meal in its own right), just include the spaghetti pasta in the sauce, and then serve it that way. If you do that idea, you may want to add some extra tomato sauce (spiced?) or tomato flavored water to the mix so it does not thicken up too much.  And of course give it a name, like mama’s spaghetti.

If you think about it, this can make an OK soup kitchen meal, too.

And enhancing morale is a big deal. A nifty and tasty meal is always much better than a healthy meal if you have time and money to do it.