Simplest Italian Pasta

Each region of Italy developed its own specialties. We can identify them by region as possible and provided some information on the main regions whose pasta highlighted. While American and Italian pastas are made from durum wheat (semolina is the ground wheat kernel of durum), pasta can be made from other flours. Some northern European countries use other wheats or potatoes. Asian noodles, also called threads, can be made of rice, soybean, wheat, or other flours. The “glass noodles” used in Thai dishes are made from soybean flour, the opaque white Chinese noodles from rice flour, and Japanese soba noodles from buckwheat flour. Polish pierogi, Italian gnocchi and German spaetzle, which are generally referred to as dumplings, are also considered forms of pasta.

As anyone who visits Italy rapidly realizes, pasta may be the national dish, but it's not a monolith: In adapting it to suit local traditions and ingredients, the cooks of the Peninsula have produced an infinite variety of forms and preparation methods. This is especially true for baked pasta, where the kind of pasta used and the sauces used to season it vary greatly from place to place.

Pasta is the simplest of Italian foods. It is the most widely known and can be found all over the world. But it is easy to go wrong with it and to end up with a soggy uninspiring mess. While there are many ways for cooking Italian pasta, a few offer the user a nicely cooked non-sticky noodle to work with. In many of the dishes that the Italians make, noodles are used in conjunction with other ingredients.