| Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz) | |
|---|---|
| Energy | 1,553 kJ (371 kcal) |
75 g | |
| Starch | 62 g |
| Sugars | 2 g |
| Dietary fibre | 3 g |
1.5 g | |
13 g | |
| Vitamins | Quantity %DV† |
| Folate (B9) | 5% 18 μg |
| Other constituents | Quantity |
| Water | 10 g |
| †Percentages estimated using US recommendations for adults,[1] except for potassium, which is estimated based on expert recommendation from the National Academies.[2] | |
Pasta is a type of food made from a dough using flour, water and/or eggs. The dough is shaped and can be stored. The pasta is boiled prior to consumption. There are many variations of shapes and ingredients that are all called pasta. Some English speakers say that pastas are a type of noodle. A few examples include spaghetti (solid cylinders), macaroni (tubes or hollow cylinders), lasagne (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". As recently as 1918 the English word "paste" was used instead of or alongside the Italian pasta.[3]
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 (notably in the United States), 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).
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.
Fresh pasta cooks quickly, but spoils relatively quickly due to its high water content. Dry pasta generally contains about 12.5% moisture, which makes it shelf stable for about three years. Packed refrigerated or frozen pasta can be found with relative ease in most pasta consuming countries. More varieties tend to be available where expatriate Italian communities have taken root. Italian companies manufacture machines for producing "fresh" packed pasta, which has a shelf life of around 7 weeks.
History
Though the Chinese were eating noodles as long ago as 2000 BCE (this is known thanks to the discovery of a well preserved bowl of pasta over 4000 years old[4]), 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.[5] The works of the 2nd century CE Greek physician Galen mention itrion, homogenous compounds made up of flour and water.[6] The Jerusalem Talmud records that itrium, a kind of boiled dough,[6] was common in Palestine from the 3rd to 5th centuries CE.[7] 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.[6]
One form of itrion with a long history is laganum (plural lagana), which in Latin refers to a thin sheet of dough.[8] In the 1st century BCE work of Horace, lagana were fine sheets of dough which were fried[9] and were an everyday food.[8] Writing in the 2nd century CE 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.[8] 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.[8]
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.
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.
Pasta varieties
Pasta comes in many different shapes and sizes. There are simple string-shaped pasta like spaghetti and vermicelli, ribbon-shaped ones like fettuccine and linguine, short tubes like elbow macaroni and penne, decorative fancy shapes like farfalle and rotelle, large sheets like lasagna, and hollow pasta stuffed with filling, like ravioli, manicotti, and tortellini. See List of pasta for more detailed descriptions of varieties of pasta.
The shape and characteristics of each variety's surface makes it better suited for certain kinds of sauce. Ingredients are usually the same; variations include the use of whole grains and the addition of color and flavor enhancers like squash, spinach, and red pepper.
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References
- ^ United States Food and Drug Administration (2024). "Daily Value on the Nutrition and Supplement Facts Labels". Retrieved 2024-03-28.
- ^ National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Health and Medicine Division; Food and Nutrition Board; Committee to Review the Dietary Reference Intakes for Sodium and Potassium (2019). Oria, Maria; Harrison, Meghan; Stallings, Virginia A. (eds.). Dietary Reference Intakes for Sodium and Potassium. The National Academies Collection: Reports funded by National Institutes of Health. Washington, DC: National Academies Press (US). ISBN 978-0-309-48834-1. PMID 30844154.
- ^ The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book. Chapter VI. CEREALS. Fannie Farmer. Original text from of the 1918 edition of Fannie Merritt Farmer's Boston Cooking-School Cook Book.
- ^ Template:Cite science
- ^ Serventi, Silvano (2002). Pasta: The Story of a Universal Food. Trans. Antony Shugaar. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 10. ISBN 0231124422.
{{cite book}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help) - ^ a b c Serventi & Sabban 2002:17
- ^ Serventi & Sabban 2002:29
- ^ a b c d Serventi & Sabban 2002:15–16
- ^ Serventi & Sabban 2002:24
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.