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“It Had To Be You”~ Frank Sinatra

Byfrancescadzani@gmail.com
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I am so in love with pasta. I think most people feel this way about it, but if they were in my head they may have something different to say. It’s kind of like how people have obsessions with boy bands or baby goats, but instead, my enthusiasm goes towards pasta. I promise to be on the treadmill as soon as I post this, but I have no regrets after today anyway. 

The many types of pasta and their origins are so unbelievable that it’s almost intimidating. You may want to try everything, but where do you begin? In the year 1000, Italy lost its connection with pasta but the Arabs brought it back! You will find that many recipes call for flour, salt, olive oil, and eggs in pasta dough. I will have you know this is not key to the best pasta dough. The right ratio of eggs, flour, and sometimes water (o, oo, or semolina) are key to the most tender doughs. There are dried and fresh pasta both made from flour, eggs, and water to clarify. Salt and olive oil are not necessary, just make sure you salt the water; that makes a world of a difference like I always try to convince my mother. 

Italy is a very small country with so much diversity. Pasta from northern Italy is dressed in butter and cheese while in southern Italy you will find tomato sauces. Just when you think you know all about pasta, you realize that you will never know enough… and today, that happened to me! I would like to inform you about some interesting pasta I learned about and ate today so that you can try it at home.

I will start by discussing one of my favorite pasta dishes known as Pizzoccheri. This dish originates in the Alps of Lombardia and may be common in restaurants of Switzerland. Typically you may find buckwheat flour in the Alps so this very dry, low in gluten flour, is used to make fettuccini. The pasta is mixed with potatoes, cabbage, fontina (mountain cheese), brown butter and sage. Corzetti is from Liguria nearest France on the northeast. These flat round pasta are stamped into different textures. Women will get together to make pasta;  and in order to differentiate one families pasta from the other, each person’s stamp has its own pattern. 

I have found this particular pasta to be quite unique. Sufilandeu reminds me of a very tight basket weave with thin strands of pasta. It is hard to describe especially because we did not make it today and told that it was quite a challenge. San Domenico Uovo in Raviolo looks like one large raviolo stuffed with spinach and ricotta and a runny egg yolk in the middle. Egg yolks are notorious for taking food to a different level, I absolutely love the idea of this pasta! This raviolo is often served with white truffle. 

I have saved cannelloni for last because that is what I made today. This stuffed pasta was created before tortellini or tortelli back in the 1300s. My mother always made this delicious dish when I was young, except she may have cheated a few times using the preformed pasta also known to be called manicotti. However, cannelloni is made by rolling out a sheet of pasta dough and cutting it into rectangular pieces, cooking, and then rolling them up with the stuffing. I used  mortadella, veal, and spinach stuffing bound with one egg. The stuffing is typically dry, but the bechamel and tomato sauce add great moisture. 

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PIN IT Carnevale is celebrated largely in Veneto on December 21st to February 13th before the no meat streak of Lent begins. It’s a necessary time to make all things fried, sweet and heavy like frittelle di zucca (fried quenelles of pumpkin and raisins) or frittelle di carnevale (fried dough with raisins and pine nuts rolled in…

142 Comments

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