What You (Probably) Don't Know About Pasta

Pasta is something extraordinary!

Forget anything you know about it and keep reading.

People have always had the wrong assumption that pasta has too many calories and carbs, according to some expert fitness blowhard on Instagram. That you shouldn't include in your diet such an "unhealthy" item but combine high-protein foods into a supposedly "perfect" mix where you stuff your mouth with chicken 5 times a day.

But then, they keep eating frozen pizzas, fried chicken wings, potatoes, sausages, and more junk food. They must have eaten their own logic too.

Try have 75 gr. of pasta with boiled zucchini for lunch instead of your usual mixed bowl of dog food and you'll see much better results - energy-wise and diet-wise. You'd also ease your kidneys' work: all that protein must be hard to absorb.

Now, if you're with me on this, and you're going to add pasta on your regular food plan, let me share something about pasta and its cooking habits you (probably) don't know.

Pasta comes in many different shapes

Yeah! Pasta has a variety of sizes and shapes, many more than you can even imagine, and each of them has a specific flavour.

Trust me, there is indeed a difference between spaghetti and macaroni, even from the same brand. Why? No idea, but I'm positive.

Let's go through some of them, shall we?

PENNE LISCE and PENNE RIGATE: That's every child's dream pasta. Simple, tasty, perfect for every occasion.

RIGATONI: Short and large-shaped pasta, varies from 2cm to 5cm wide. Delicious also oven-baked.

FARFALLE: Butterfly pasta, actually ribbon-shaped. Spectacular!

FETTUCCE: Large and flat shaped spaghetti, even larger than linguini. If you're a short pasta lover, you'll enjoy the consistency of this one.

LASAGNE: You all know this one, no need explaining. Wonderful both red (with tomato sauce) and white (with bechamel).

GNOCCHI: You are all familiar with this one, too. Whether with tomato sauce and smoked mozzarella or mixed cheeses, or pesto, it's always delicious.

RAVIOLI and TORTELLINI: Stuffed pasta; the former is bigger than the latter, unless it's tortelloni. People from Bologna say that tortellini goes with broth only and solely, but, screw them, you can have it with pretty much any dense sauce (walnut pesto, butter and sage, truffle pesto - just to list a few).

I've only listed some of the types I like the most. The actual list would be way too long otherwise.

And now the breaking revelation:

PASTA DOESN'T GO WITH ANY SAUCE/CONDIMENT. THERE'S AN (IMPLICIT) RULE.

I'm sure many people already know this, but there's a specific type of pasta for each sauce.

First of all, sweetcorn, chicken, meatballs, never ever ever ever go with pasta. Occasionally, you can add tiny meatballs in lasagna but the whole American spaghetti with meatballs thing is a big fat scam! Just don't do that okay?

Please, let me instruct you.

Tomato sauce and pesto (pretty much any pesto) well suit penne, rigatoni, farfalle and fettucce. Cheese sauces go better with rigatoni or gnocchi - no long pasta - and stuffed pasta. Peas, beans, but all legumes, in general, are expected to beautifully combine with short rigatoni (called tubetti) or mixed pasta (a mix of short pasta).

Make note of this rule: dense sauces go with short pasta; liquid sauces (not broth) go with long pasta. Easy, right?

Now you can sit at the table and enjoy an extra-large plate of spaghetti with cherry tomatoes. The warm and delightful vibe of sharing with your loved ones. Your kids sucking spaghetti and spreading sauces all over their faces. You and your wife carefully twirling it on your forks and biting on that bittersweet flavour that reheats your body and your senses. The joy of spending some time together, even for a couple of hours. The entire household savouring that moment - for the food, for the moment itself.

It's cold outside, it's probably snowing. But inside the house, however warm and cosy, you've got chills of happiness. You smile at your wife, she smiles back, the kids are loud but still pleasantly funny, and life seems to be so perfect. So peaceful. So easy.

And that's how you realise that pasta is something really extraordinary.