(photo: homemade cavatelli with broccoli) Cavatelli are about an inch to an inch and a half in length and are made from semolina, flour, and water.  Cavatelli usually have a rolled edge and are easy to make at home.  We paired our homemade cavatelli with brocolli, garlic, and extra virgin olive oil.  The Scordo Pasta Challenge chugs along! (photo: homemade […]

(photo: penne lisce with tomato sauce, photo taken with iPhone hence grainy picture) Say it slowly, almost in a whisper: “L-I-S-C-E” (doesn’t it sound sexy).  OK, come back to reality now and specifically the Scordo Pasta Challenge.  The word lisce is translated as smooth and part of the exquisite and versatile pasta shape known as penne lisce.  Penne lisce differs […]

See Below for Contest and Book Give Away! contest closed You have to admire any book that documents well over 110 authentic Italian pasta sauces and the hundreds of pasta shapes that marry best to a given sauce.  If a book goes further and contains beautifully rendered graphic shapes for each pasta then you have a timeless cookbook that should be […]

The History of Pasta Shapes – The Italian People and Pasta Just in case you were having sleepless nights concerning the birthplace of pasta, the esteemed food critic, Oretta Zanini de Vita confirms that there were records of pasta in Italy 500 years before Marco Polo returned from China; so pasta was, in fact, invented in Italy.  I’m glad we cleared the […]

Spiral pasta gets a bad rap in the United States as the pasta shape is often used in generic, and deli type, “pasta salad” dishes.  Generally, the pasta is overcooked, mushy, and devoid of flavor.

Wow, wow, and even more wow!  I was blown away by a dry pasta from the Italian pasta company Pastificio Vicidomini, specifically the Tagliatelle. The Tagliatelle shape has been around for a long period of time and originally comes from the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy.  The word Tagliatelle is derived from tagliare, meaning “to cut.”  Tagliatelle is similar to fettucine in shape and often made […]

I like to refer to Lasagna as the “secret weapon” pasta; that is to say, it’s easy to prepare, freezes well, and seems to be a perennial favorite (thus you can make and consume it often!).  And as Wisegeek.com suggests, the history of the name lasagna is also very interesting.  The word lasagna is derived from the Greek lasanon, which […]

(photo: linguine fine tossed with tomato sauce and grilled calamari) I bet you thought the Scordo Pasta Challenge lost a bit of steam during the late summer!  You shouldn’t, however, fear because we’re back with shape #72A, the extraordinary linguine fine (a variation of the standard linguine shape that’s quick cooking <4 minutes!> and wonderful with delicate sauces such as […]

This week’s Scordo Pasta Challenge was special to me, you see the Scordo family canned tomatoes this past weekend and the penne lisce we consumed included the first tomato sauce made from 2010 tomatoes! “Penne Lisce”, or smooth penne, is essentially the standard penne you can find in any supermarket and on most menus at restaurants.  The second, standard, penne […]

(photo: The Canonica Verde Umbrian Spice Blend including rosemary, sea salt, garlic, and red pepper flakes) Click here for my other olive oil reviews! As you’ve probably noticed, Olive Oil and Pasta are at the heart of Italian cuisine (both above and below the mezzogiorno, the geopolitical dividing line of Italy).  Specifically, my love for both products started in Nonna Scordo’s […]