Types of pasta. What are pasta?

Chellentani and manicotti, kazerechche and pipe rigate, mafalda and stellin, soba and udon, saiphun and bifun, chuzma and nuasyr - for someone who treats pasta "quietly", it's just a collection of foreign words. For a true lover, this is a story about what kinds of pasta are in different countries.

Today, unlike the old times, on the shelves of shops and supermarkets are the most diverse types of pasta. The photo below shows only a small amount of macaroni in variety, shape, and kind.

Where and when did the pasta appear?

The exact date when macaroni appeared in the diet of people can not be called any historian of cooking. Today, there are hypotheses about the primacy of the Etruscans, Chinese and Arabs in the matter of inventing macaroni.

Having carefully studied the bas-reliefs of the Etruscan necropolis, dating back to the 4th century BC. E., the historians came to the conclusion that they depicted objects utensils, through which pasta was made.

According to another theory, the modern history of pasta begins in the XIII century, when Marco Polo returned to Venice from China. However, even in the middle of the 12th century, most of Sicily's exports were made up of one of the pasta secca pasta types. That is, half a century before the return of the great traveler from China, the Italians already made different kinds of pasta.

Other historians argue that the priority in discovering macaroni, or rather, such a kind as noodles, belongs to China, where it was prepared before the onset of our era. Despite the fact that there is no exact information about when and where the pasta appeared, people living in different countries and belonging to different cultures and nationalities are happy to use them.

"National" features of pasta

In the kitchen of many peoples there are a variety of types of pasta and dishes in which they are used in one form or another.

For Europeans, the most favorite and habitual types are pasta, made from wheat flour. They can be of the most varied width, length and shape.

Most Asian residents, including the Chinese, prefer macaroni made from rice flour. Basically, these are types of pasta, such as rice noodles of varying length and width, translucent or white.

In Japan, Kazakhstan, Central Asia and some provinces of China, long noodles are very popular, which are pulled out in a special way. In Asia, it is called "chuzma" and used to prepare a lagman.

In Japan, with pleasure they prepare from various types of flour a variety of pasta. So, very popular noodles soba, made from a mixture of buckwheat and rice flour and used in the preparation of many dishes. From the starch of leguminous plants, a special kind of noodles is prepared - a saufoon.

In the Arab countries such kinds of macaroni products as sieve and nousar are popular.

For a long time culinary specialists from different parts of the world improved the art of making pasta and created new recipes. Let's look at what pasta is.

Russian classification of pasta

Pasta can be systematized according to various characteristics and, above all, depending on the raw materials used in the manufacturing process. Macaroni in most cases are made from wheat flour, but can be made from rice, rye and buckwheat flour, as well as cornstarch.

According to Russian standards, pasta made from wheat flour, depending on wheat varieties, is divided into the following groups: A, B, B. In addition, the grade of flour is the basis for distinguishing three varieties of pasta - the higher, the first and the second.

To group A it is customary to include macaroni produced from flour of higher, first and second sorts of durum wheat. The raw material for macaroni of group B is the flour of the higher and the first grades of vitreous soft wheat. For pasta group B, bakery flour of the highest and first grades is used.

In Russia, according to established GOSTs, all pasta, depending on their form, are divided into several types:

• Figured;
• Tubular;
• Threadlike;
• Ribbon-shaped.

In each of these types, several species are distinguished. Figured products can be manufactured in a variety of shapes and sizes.

Tubular pasta includes directly pasta, feathers and horns. Depending on the diameter, they are divided into:

• "Straw" - with a diameter of up to 4 mm;
• Special - diameter from 4 mm to 5.5 mm;
• Ordinary - with a diameter of 5.6 mm to 7 mm;
• Amateur - more than 7 mm in diameter.

Threadlike pasta is divided into vermicelli-spiderweb with a diameter of not more than 0.8 mm; Thin - no more than 1.2 mm in diameter; Ordinary - the diameter of which does not exceed 1.5 mm; Amateur - up to 3 mm in diameter.

Noodles are produced into ribbon-like pasta, produced in various kinds and names. It can be with straight and wavy edges, rippled and smooth. The thickness of noodles can not exceed 2 mm, and the width is allowed any, but not less than 3 mm.

According to Russian GOSTs, all pastas are divided into two main groups: short ones, lengths from 1.5 to 15 cm, and long ones - from 15 to 50 cm. According to GOSTs, macaroni are only long, noodles and vermicelli can be both long, so And short. Figured products, as well as horns and feathers are only produced short.

Italian classification of macaroni

In Italy, a slightly different classification of pasta is used than is customary in Russia. In total, there are about three hundred kinds of pasta in Italian cooking, but hardly anyone can name the exact number of them.

In Italy, all the pasta is divided, first of all, into damp and dry. Dry pasta is stored for a long time and sold in regular stores. Unlike them, raw pasta is immediately used to make a dish.

All Italian pasta is conditionally divided into the following subgroups:

• Long;
• Short;
• Figured;
• Fine soup paste;
• Intended for baking;
• Filled (stuffed) pasta.

Long pasta

To long pasta products include tubules from 1.2 to 2 mm in diameter, such as capellini, vermicelli, spaghetti and spaghettini and bucatini.

Flat pasta in the form of strips of noodles, such as bavetite, fettuccine, tagliatelle, linguine and pappardelle, vary in width from 3 to 13 mm.

A separate view of long flat pasta is the mafaldin, having wavy edges.

Short pasta

Short pasta is a great variety, the most popular are the following species.

Penne feathers are small tubes with a diameter of no more than 10 mm and a length of no more than 4 cm. The ends of such pasta are cut obliquely, because of what they resemble a sharpened feather. Their surface can be either smooth or corrugated.

Ditalini, which in translation from Italian means "thimbles." Small and very short tubes.

Rigatoni - short and long pasta tubes, wider than penne. Usually corrugated.

Ziti - slightly arched ducts. They can be either short or long.

Horns (Elbow macaroni) - arcuate, small-sized hollow tubes.

Figured pasta

Figured macaroni in the Italian tradition can be very different both in shape and size. We call the most popular and frequently used forms of pasta.

Rotini - spirals, really small and short "springs".

Fuzzles are spirals longer than rotini, and also twisted into a "spring". They can be of different types: long, thin, short and thick.

Kawatappi - very similar to fuzzles, but only more extended in length. Inside they are hollow, and outside - corrugated.

Conquell - seashells, and in literal translation from Italian - "shell mollusk." They differ in length and in a narrow internal cavity.

Lumaka is a snail. Indeed, they look very much like a snail's house, from which it crept out.

Farfale - butterflies. We have adopted a less romantic and more prosaic name - "bows."

Radiator - not very tasty and romantic sounding name - radiator, because of grooves and grooves on each pasta.

Ruote - a wheel, our macaroni of this form are called - "wheels".

Orso - more like rice small pasta.

We will not consider in detail the types of Italian figured pasta, we simply list a few more names: torchio, dzhemlli, malloredas, kesaricia, cross di Galli, quadrafioro and jigli.

Fine pasta (pasta) for soups

For filling soups use the following types of small pasta.

Anelli - small flat rings.

Alphabet - macaroni in the form of letters.

Corals - miniature small tubes, in a section reminiscent of coral.

Stellaete - stars, are similar to our soup macaroni of the same form.

Filini - short strings.

Pasta for baking

Cannelloni - look like a long and a large diameter tube.

Manicotti - long tubes, like cannelloni, but only with a smaller diameter.

Conquilione - the largest, we can say, giant shells.

Conquell - shells of medium size.

Lumaconi is a large snail.

Lasagna - flat and wide sheets, the edges of which can be either smooth or wavy.

Filled pasta - pasta with stuffing

Ravioli - a square form of pasta dumplings from pasta, are very similar to ordinary Russian dumplings.

Tortellinni - small dumplings in the form of rings with a variety of fillings.

Njoki - small dumplings stuffed with mashed potatoes, cheese or spinach.

On the question of what kind of pasta there are, most of their fans at the age of 3 to 12 years will answer that they are colored. Indeed, it is children who love such pasta most! They are colored, as a rule, with natural dyes. So, green pasta is obtained by adding spinach juice, violet - beet juice, black - squid ink.

In Italy, they love black pasta and call it pasta nera. The size, shape and length of these pastas depend solely on the culinary imagination of the cook, who decided to cook them.

We examined the most commonly used species and varieties of pasta, in fact, the assortment of pasta is much larger than we can imagine. Probably, the Italians, with the exception of professional chefs, cook historians and macaroni production technologists, do not know what pasta is so beloved in their homeland.