(photo: completed pesto sauce in a bowl made from the famous ceramic factories in Bagnara Calabra) Chitarra is similar to spaghetti, but with squared edges. It was once cut on guitar strings, hence its unique name.  Here’s a great link to a “guitar pasta maker“ (photo: Chitarra with pesto and a glass of Pinot Noir from Chile <light years ahead […]

Pasta al Ceppo is literally translated as pasta on a stick and knitting needles were once used to shape the pasta.  The pasta has a nice texture and works well with hearty sauces.   The Scordo Pasta Challenge continues!

Here’s a quick and simple Scordo Pasta Challenge entry this morning as it’s hot and sticky in the Northeast!   Cannolicchi is a pasta from the Abruzzo region which is traditionally served with seafood sauces.  Cannolicchi has a distinctive shape including coiled ridges which separate after the cooking process!  I prepared the Rustichella Cannolicchi with broccoli and crumbled Creminelli sausage.  

Strozzapreti is translated as “priest choker.”  The legend has it that the priests of  Emilia-Romagna and surrounding regions enjoyed the long pasta so much that they choked while eating it.  I can certainly understand eating Strozzapreti quickly as it is, indeed, a delicous pasta. I prepared our 500 grams of Rustichella Strozzapreti with tomato sauce and then added some finely chopped mozzarella.  I […]

Orecchiette is the little pasta (or “little ear”, literally translated) that could; that is to say, at first glance the pasta shape from Apulia seems unremarkable, but when paired with vegetables it springs to life!  In southern Italy, Orecchiette are made by way of wheat flour and the traditional method includes pressing down on dime sized pieces of dough to get […]

Nothing says special occasion like ravioli!  You see, as a young lad, standard dry pasta shapes like penne, linguine, and rigatoni, made their way to my mother’s dinner table about 1x-2x per week.  However, whenever the regal ravioli made an appearance for lunch we knew it was a special day.   Ravioli were reserved for holidays or a special occasion such as a birthday […]

For many Italians, soup equals pasta; that is to say, a primo serving of soup in many Italian households includes some sort of pasta mixed in with Lentil, Peas, Chickpeas, etc. (or for example our Chickpea and Brocolli Soup with Ditalini recipe).  Adding a small amount of pasta to a soup increases the hardiness of any given soup dish and […]

With some spectacular weather here on the East Coast my mind turned to the outdoors the last week or so, hence the long stretch without a post (my apologies).   My latest pasta conquest centered on the Cencioni, a little known pasta from the Basilicata region of Italy.  Cencioni, or translated as “little rag”, is perfect for loose sauces.   Cencioni has […]

(photo: final product with a bit of extra provola and olive oil) When it comes to living life, I’m a sucker for both luxurious and practical things.  I’m equally comfortable driving a Honda or a Mercedes-Benz or living amongst nose-in-the-air snobs or dyed in the wool blue collar types.  I lean towards the practical and modest side of living, but who […]

(photo: With the Imperia in the background, tiny mounds of Fettucine lay to dry) My wife’s family celebrates Palm Sunday via a never ending feast of homemade Fettucine (made via the standard Imperia pasta machine).  The homemade fettucine are delicate and wonderfully light (“light” is something you hear lots of people say about homemade pasta, I agree but I’m not […]