Be a pastas master
Pasta is great as a mid-week stand-by meal, but if you've never moved away from the standard spaghetti bolognese or carbonara, it's time to explore a wider world of flavours. Try our pasta parcels for an exciting new take on an old favourite. Hands up...
Pasta is great as a mid-week stand-by meal, but if you've never moved away from the standard spaghetti bolognese or carbonara, it's time to explore a wider world of flavours. Try our pasta parcels for an exciting new take on an old favourite.
Hands up if you've ever come home from work starving hungry, and after rooting around for something to eat, opted for pasta in a bland sauce? Admittedly, it's quick and easy, but convenience doesn't always make for exciting food. And eating pasta as a substitute for a "proper" meal doesn't really do Italy's finest culinary export justice.
So back to basics first. Pasta is made from the flour of certain grains, mixed with water and/or eggs. It's kneaded and formed into different shapes, then boiled.
Making your own pasta will never be as cheap as buying the ready-to-go kind but it can be a lot of fun. There are literally hundreds of recipes out there for you to try, and some will work better in certain dishes than others. The best bet is to try one and see how it turns out - learn by doing!
Shaped pasta
Conchiglie ‒ large, shell-shaped pasta
Farfalle ‒ in the shape of a bow tie or butterfly
Fiori ‒ from the Italian for flowers, but look more like cogs
Fusilli ‒ a three-edged spiral, often come in different colours
Tubular pasta
Mezzani ‒ short curved tubes
Penne ‒ medium-length tubes, cut diagonally at both ends
Strand pasta or noodles
Spaghetti ‒ the most famous of all. Long, thin strands, ideal for Bolognese. Flattened spaghetti is called linguine.
Vermicelli ‒ long, round strands, much thinner than spaghetti
Ribbon pasta
Lasagne ‒ very wide pasta sheets
Tagliatelle ‒ ribbons of pasta, less than 1cm wide
Stuffed pasta
Cannelloni ‒ Rolls of pasta, stuffed with Bolognese-style sauce and cooked in the oven
Tortellini ‒ small rectangles, around 2cm in diameter
To make a basic dough, you will need:
500g strong white flour
3 large eggs
8 egg yolks
Place the flour in a heap on a clean surface, making a well in the centre, then place the eggs and yolks in the middle and gently combine them with a fork until all the flour and eggs are mixed together. Knead the soft dough with your hands until it becomes soft and elastic. When you are happy with the dough, wrap it in cling film and leave it in the fridge for around 30 minutes. This is an important stage, as it allows the flour to develop so your pasta will be light.
Break the dough into four pieces and either use a rolling machine or a rolling pin to flatten the mix out into thin sheets before shaping the pasta as desired. To cook, drop the pasta into salted boiling water. For al dente pasta, boil for five minutes, for softer pasta, leave for a minute or two longer.
Pasta can come in all kinds of shapes. All types have very specific Italian names, so check out this list of the most popular varieties.
The classic accompaniment to tomato-based pasta is Italy's most famous red wine, Chianti. For seafood pasta, choose Chardonnay or Sauvignon.
Whether you use homemade or store-bought pasta - or are looking for a mid-week recipe or unrushed weekend lunch - try this simple dish and banish memories of mushy pasta and gloopy sauce from a jar forever.
Pasta in parcels with tuna and potatoes
250g tuna steak, chopped into 2cm pieces
1 glass of white wine
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped grated zest of 1 lemon
2 sprigs of rosemary, broken into pieces sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
8 new potatoes, peeled and cut into small dice
12 ripe plum tomatoes, de-seeded and roughly chopped handful of flat-leaf parsley, plus more to serve350g spaghetti
2 tbsp of olive oil
Serves 4
Place the tuna in a bowl with the wine, garlic, lemon zest, rosemary and some seasoning. Marinate for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 200°C.
Towards the end of the marinating time, cook the potato dice in boiling salted water for six minutes until tender. Strain, then combine with the tomatoes and most of the parsley.
At the same time, half-cook the spaghetti (use just over half the time suggested on the packet). Drain well.
In a large frying pan, heat the oil until hot, add the tuna and marinade and fry very quickly for six minutes. Turn down the heat and add the spaghetti, tomatoes and potatoes and mix well. Prepare four parcels with parchment or grease-proof paper. Add one quarter of the mix to each and fold up loosely like an envelope, fold over the top to seal completely.
Place in a pre-heated oven for seven minutes. Serve at once, slashing the bags at the table, and sprinkling with more parsley.
Variations
If you don't fancy tuna, try replacing it with some thinly sliced courgette and courgette flowers. Fry for three minutes with white wine and garlic, add parsley and mint before mixing with the pasta and stuffing the parcels.
Try swapping the tuna for a dozen fruity black olives, or for something completely different, fry two sliced red onions in a little butter until softened, then add 450g of shelled broad beans, chopped mint and garlic. Cook until the beans are tender before adding 100g of freshly grated Pecorino cheese to make a sauce. Stir in the pasta and fill the parcels.
Hands up if you've ever come home from work starving hungry, and after rooting around for something to eat, opted for pasta in a bland sauce? Admittedly, it's quick and easy, but convenience doesn't always make for exciting food. And eating pasta as a substitute for a "proper" meal doesn't really do Italy's finest culinary export justice.
So back to basics first. Pasta is made from the flour of certain grains, mixed with water and/or eggs. It's kneaded and formed into different shapes, then boiled.
Making your own pasta will never be as cheap as buying the ready-to-go kind but it can be a lot of fun. There are literally hundreds of recipes out there for you to try, and some will work better in certain dishes than others. The best bet is to try one and see how it turns out - learn by doing!
Shaped pasta
Conchiglie ‒ large, shell-shaped pasta
Farfalle ‒ in the shape of a bow tie or butterfly
Fiori ‒ from the Italian for flowers, but look more like cogs
Fusilli ‒ a three-edged spiral, often come in different colours
Tubular pasta
Mezzani ‒ short curved tubes
Penne ‒ medium-length tubes, cut diagonally at both ends
Strand pasta or noodles
Spaghetti ‒ the most famous of all. Long, thin strands, ideal for Bolognese. Flattened spaghetti is called linguine.
Vermicelli ‒ long, round strands, much thinner than spaghetti
Ribbon pasta
Lasagne ‒ very wide pasta sheets
Tagliatelle ‒ ribbons of pasta, less than 1cm wide
Stuffed pasta
Cannelloni ‒ Rolls of pasta, stuffed with Bolognese-style sauce and cooked in the oven
Tortellini ‒ small rectangles, around 2cm in diameter
To make a basic dough, you will need:
500g strong white flour
3 large eggs
8 egg yolks
Place the flour in a heap on a clean surface, making a well in the centre, then place the eggs and yolks in the middle and gently combine them with a fork until all the flour and eggs are mixed together. Knead the soft dough with your hands until it becomes soft and elastic. When you are happy with the dough, wrap it in cling film and leave it in the fridge for around 30 minutes. This is an important stage, as it allows the flour to develop so your pasta will be light.
Break the dough into four pieces and either use a rolling machine or a rolling pin to flatten the mix out into thin sheets before shaping the pasta as desired. To cook, drop the pasta into salted boiling water. For al dente pasta, boil for five minutes, for softer pasta, leave for a minute or two longer.
Pasta can come in all kinds of shapes. All types have very specific Italian names, so check out this list of the most popular varieties.
The classic accompaniment to tomato-based pasta is Italy's most famous red wine, Chianti. For seafood pasta, choose Chardonnay or Sauvignon.
Whether you use homemade or store-bought pasta - or are looking for a mid-week recipe or unrushed weekend lunch - try this simple dish and banish memories of mushy pasta and gloopy sauce from a jar forever.
Pasta in parcels with tuna and potatoes
250g tuna steak, chopped into 2cm pieces
1 glass of white wine
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped grated zest of 1 lemon
2 sprigs of rosemary, broken into pieces sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
8 new potatoes, peeled and cut into small dice
12 ripe plum tomatoes, de-seeded and roughly chopped handful of flat-leaf parsley, plus more to serve350g spaghetti
2 tbsp of olive oil
Serves 4
Place the tuna in a bowl with the wine, garlic, lemon zest, rosemary and some seasoning. Marinate for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 200°C.
Towards the end of the marinating time, cook the potato dice in boiling salted water for six minutes until tender. Strain, then combine with the tomatoes and most of the parsley.
At the same time, half-cook the spaghetti (use just over half the time suggested on the packet). Drain well.
In a large frying pan, heat the oil until hot, add the tuna and marinade and fry very quickly for six minutes. Turn down the heat and add the spaghetti, tomatoes and potatoes and mix well. Prepare four parcels with parchment or grease-proof paper. Add one quarter of the mix to each and fold up loosely like an envelope, fold over the top to seal completely.
Place in a pre-heated oven for seven minutes. Serve at once, slashing the bags at the table, and sprinkling with more parsley.
Variations
If you don't fancy tuna, try replacing it with some thinly sliced courgette and courgette flowers. Fry for three minutes with white wine and garlic, add parsley and mint before mixing with the pasta and stuffing the parcels.
Try swapping the tuna for a dozen fruity black olives, or for something completely different, fry two sliced red onions in a little butter until softened, then add 450g of shelled broad beans, chopped mint and garlic. Cook until the beans are tender before adding 100g of freshly grated Pecorino cheese to make a sauce. Stir in the pasta and fill the parcels.