Italian Pasta

[RWebb]

I'll start:

Tagliatelle - fettuccine that is trying to make it to the Ferrari factory

[sammyg2]

[Bill Douglas]

I got one of these Imperio machines and made it the Italian way. Sure it was great, but what a lot of extra work Now I buy it fresh - not the dried stuff, and it's just as good as the Italian proper way.

[Purrybonker]

Grano Arso!

Ah pasta is pasta - so much hand wringing, for what?

Generally it's just kinda like the bread in the sandwich.

In Italy at the Coop, or moreso the Iper Coop, there are aisles and aisles of dry pasta where shape and size of pasta can be chosen to best deliver flavor from dish to mouth with any particular sauce and to suit any personal preference.

These are all just basically comprised of wheat flour and salt.

"Fresh" pasta adds eggs to the mix for more delicate sauces like an Alfredo.

But Grano Arso pasta, there's an example of some pasta doing magic!

We stumbled upon Grano Arso at Francis F Copolla's very nifty hotel in the southern Italian region of Bascilicata. This is a less affluent and very un-touristy area of Italy.

Story goes that back in the day, the wealthy landowners had the habit of burning off their wheat fields after the grain harvest. Peasants would flock to the burnt-off fields to pickup any left over grains of wheat and use these to make pasta.

The "burnt grains" - "grano arso" made a highly flavored pasta!

This stuff is a real treat and has been an amazing discovery for us.

[Purrybonker]

Speaking of pasta, Italy is a very diverse place.

In the west, we tend to think of Italy as being a very old nation but it is, collectively, not.

It actually only dates back to the mid 19th century as a united nation. Technically, Italy is about 100 years younger, as a nation, than the USA. Prior to that it was a mess of city states and/or Austrian, French or other "controllers", depending on the era chosen for consideration.

This is very evident in the variances of tastes and pasta experiences from one part of Italy to the next.

[Embraer]

Giugiaro designed pasta....

[Otter74]

Originally Posted by Purrybonker

Speaking of pasta, Italy is a very diverse place.

In the west, we tend to think of Italy as being a very old nation but it is, collectively, not.

It actually only dates back to the mid 19th century as a united nation. Technically, Italy is about 100 years younger, as a nation, than the USA. Prior to that it was a mess of city states and/or Austrian, French or other "controllers", depending on the era chosen for consideration.

This is very evident in the variances of tastes and pasta experiences from one part of Italy to the next.

In that vein, some of you may find this interesting, temporarily ungated in the Paris Review.

https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2020/07/07/how-neapolitan-cuisine-took-over-the-world/

[NY65912]

Orecchiette Barese. My grandmother who lived with us made it EVERY Sunday. My father learned how to make them from his mother while a child in Italy.

Now I have my cousins send bags of dried Orecchiette in the mail.

I love them.

https://youtu.be/R3tn44B4AeQ

[rusnak]

I absolutely hate thin spaghetti. I think the pasta should be thick, like it was when made by the immigrants from Italy in the early 1900s.

Here are some really great recipes for you guys:

https://www.saveur.com/gallery/Our-Favorite-Pasta-Recipes-/

[Ziggythecat]

Buccatini

[911 Rod]

Originally Posted by rusnak

I absolutely hate thin spaghetti. I think the pasta should be thick, like it was when made by the immigrants from Italy in the early 1900s.

Here are some really great recipes for you guys:

https://www.saveur.com/gallery/Our-Favorite-Pasta-Recipes-/

I prefer Spaghettoni which is even thinner.

[RWebb]

Originally Posted by Ziggythecat

Buccatini

Bucatini is the king of long pasta

Suck that, Spaghetti !!

[Ziggythecat]

It's what drains Ferrari sunroofs..

[wdfifteen]

Spaghetti is best right out of the garden, still warm from the sun.

[wdfifteen]