Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com

Marketplace \| Services \| Contact Us \| Community \| Arts & Entertainment \| Local Guides

Published by the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. CLICK FOR NEWSPAPER DELIVERY

Wednesday, October 17, 2001
Outside the box

Ask Food Network kitchens

Rigatoni

   Q: I eat pasta a few times a week, but I always end up eating penne (short grooved tubes) and fusilli (corkscrews). I want to branch out, but feel intimidated because my friend Claudia says that certain pastas go with certain sauces, and that some pastas should never be used with certain sauces. Why is this, how can you tell, and what should I make?
   - PASTA CONFUSION
   A: Your friend Claudia is wiser than maybe you'd like to admit. Certain pasta shapes do go better with certain sauces, and some pastas and sauces just don't match. The key is in the texture of the sauce.

Manicotti

   Chunky sauces with lots of vegetables or bits of meat are suited to large pasta shapes. These pastas include shells, farfalle (butterflies), orchiette (ears), radiatore (open ridged tubes), ziti (tubes with straight edges) and rigatoni. The vegetables and meat should complement the size of the pasta, either much larger or smaller. Same-size pasta, vegetables and meat looks boring and monotonous.

Farfalle

   Smooth sauces call out for long pastas. The sauce, whether made with cream or tomato, has little texture, letting the sauce coat the strands of pasta. Sometimes small pieces of food - chopped olives, capers, chopped pieces of bacon - can be mixed in, but overall, the sauce is smooth. The spaghetti family of pastas is round, and includes angel hair pasta, chitarra (guitar strings), vermicelli, and regular spaghetti. The linguine family of pasta is flattened, oval-shaped spaghettis. The fettucine family, which includes trenette (thinnest), fettucine (thin), tagliatelle (wide) and papardelle (very wide), are usually fresh pastas that are cut from sheets of pasta at varying widths.
   Percatellis have a thin hole in the center of the pasta, making a tube. Bucatini and long fusilli (not the corkscrews) are in this family. These pastas are from southern Italy, and go with heavier sauces like amatriciana (tomatoes, onion, pancetta) and con sarde (sardines, fennel, bread crumbs).
   Certain pastas are stuffed, like large shells, manicotti, raviolis, agnolottis and tortellini. These pastas are sheets of pasta shaped around a filling, either cheese or meat. The shapes usually matched with smoother sauces or put into soups. Soup pastas are usually very small. They are many shapes, including stars, rice grains, thimbles, rings and melon seeds. These pastas are suited to soups since they can mingle with the other ingredients and they fit on a spoon.

   Q: What is it about mayonnaise that makes food go bad?
   - CONFUSED

   A: Actually, commercial mayonnaise contains preservatives and prevents anything mixed with it from going bad for a longer period of time. It is the protein (eggs, tuna, etc.) that begins to grow bacteria after two hours at room temperature. Mayonnaise can be homemade by emulsifying vegetable oil, fresh egg yolks, lemon juice or vinegar, salt and pepper. It's delicious. The homemade variety, however, only lasts refrigerated for two or three days.

   Whip it:
   Room temperature eggs whip up better than those straight from the refrigerator. To bring eggs to room temperature, set them in a bowl, cover with tepid water, and set aside for 5 minutes.
   - Scripps Howard News Service




Share recipe ideas and cooking tips in the Recipe forum. (Registration required, but it is free.)

The healing cook
Cookbook author Nina Simonds thinks that our healthy foods should also taste delicious.

Divine Cakes
Create new exciting desserts, plus tips on making great birthday cakes from scratch.

Rethinking Pork
Think you know all about pork. Think again. Plus great tips on creating Creme Brulee.

Baklava
The word alone sounds gooey, delicious and mysterious as it dances across your tongue.

| Talk about this story | Next Story | Home |

[ Printer-friendly version ]
[ Subscribe to newspaper ]

SEND THIS PAGE TO A FRIEND