It taste better then you think it would. And when you have a job like mine where you get home from work at 8pm a quick meal is needed once in awhile. On a day off I have the time to slow cook a pot of sauce all day.
I do not use egg noodles that often myself , some times with chicken or beef with gravy instead of potatoes.

I'm guilty of not cooking pasta properly though I do aim for al dente. And talking about shape, Spaghettini is even finer than spaghetti.

Good afternoon all,

Pasta! My favorite. I swear I could eat a different version of it everyday and everyway and never get sick of it. I was so, so spoiled living and growing up in N.E. Ohio. Such a huge array of authentic 1st and 2nd gen Italian immigrants that supplied the area with a steady stream of mill workers (back in the day) and outstanding restaurants with amazing pastas and pizza. The Italian food is the ONLY reason I would ever think of moving back east. Out west I can't swing a dead cat and not hit good and authentic Mexican but struggle to find a decent piece of pizza (so far they are all abysmal and the boxes taste better) or decent pasta. Caruso's is good, reliable and consistent but not much more beyond the Italian menu pasta standard dishes. Anyhow, my love affair with pasta taught me a lot about it and how to make it. It is my 'best' dish and what I am most confident cooking.

From what I've learned over the years (JB correct me if I am wrong ) is that egg pasta is made with durum wheat with egg added. Popular in northern Italy as they typically used filled pasta or stuffed pastas like ravioli. The egg helped strengthen the dough and keep the filling inside during cooking. Regular pasta is durum wheat and water. Also the northern Italians use butter as their 'fat' more so than olive oil in cooking and prefer cream based sauces over tomato based ones and use a lot more meat in their pasta sauces. So again no big surprise that egg pasta goes better with cream and butter and meat.

As for shapes each one is designed to coordinate/work best with particular ingredients. There aren't hard-fast or rigid rules but some general guidelines. Common sense dictates. Heavy sauces with large chunks of meat or big chunks of heavy veggies like onions and bell peppers usually don't go well over thin spaghetti or angel hair as the 'chunks' slide off them or the pasta gets lost taste wise instead of being the star of the dish. The sauce sinks to the bottom of the bowl/dish and you wind up with a bowl full of 'chunks' and not pasta to eat it with.

Usually a wide, flat and more sturdy noodle works better with meat sauces such as linguine, tagliatelle or pappardelle. They also work great with short tubular shapes; think penne or rigatoni or small shells and corkscrew/spiral shapes or bowties where the sauce and meat/s can get into the nooks, crannies and center so you taste it with each bite of pasta. Butter and cream and meat based sauces also go well with penne, rigatoni or bowties and corkscrews. They're thick and heavy enough to match the sauce and again with the sauce being able to get into the nooks and crannies.

Southern Italy uses the standard durum wheat pasta and leans towards tomato based sauces and the use of EVOO. Long thin shapes work best with seafood or tomato based sauces or sauces that are minimal like just EVOO and some cheese on top. Also with long pasta the sauce should be smooth and thick to coat the noodles. If it is too thin a sauce and watery it slides off.

As for vegetables like roasted peppers, onions, etc. or things like fish and meat if you are adding them to thinner pastas or longer noodles then the veggies should be chopped small and very fine. They should be in a sauce that is on the smoother side. If leaving them in long strips or slivers then treat them like 'meat' and serve over heavier or chunkier noodles like rigatoni, bowties, etc.

Again, I'll say let common sense dictate but if ever in doubt I'm sure you can always Google what types of pasta will work for this particular sauce and get a plethora of answers.

JB is correct in saying you should never rinse pasta. That comes with an exception of course. The only times you rinse it is if you are making a cold pasta salad or using the noodles for a baked dish like baked ziti or lasagna. Rinsing gets rid of the starch and also stops the cooking process so the noodles don't break down more and turn to mush in your pasta salad or baked ziti. Otherwise don't rinse pasta as the added starch helps the sauce thicken and cling to it better.

As for myself I keep the basics and what works well with most sauces in my pantry. Angel hair, spaghetti, linguine, bowties or penne and rigatoni. I figure if I always have these on hand then I can make any pasta and any sauce I want and have it come out good.

Hope this was useful.
AG

Will comment on rest later. As it is need to start prepping. Making citrus marinated chicken thighs and lemon-herb basmati rice today for dinner. Roofers are late and the weather is being a real pain when it comes to scheduling and getting things here finished.

I really need to try making the pasta and sauce together next time I make it. As for the olive oil and garlic pasta dish, I believe it's a staple in the Mediterranean area. It's very tasty. And I as well am in the crowd that could eat pasta any day.

Today for lunch is leftover Mediterranean soup (delicious!) with a stir fry. Two completely different categories of food from completely different areas, but I'm fine with it as long as it's tasty.

Everything you ever wanted to know about pasta, find out on Chow Time. Pasta lovers here too.

Dinner last night was Tex-Mex seasoned chicken breast, home fries, and green peas.

This is a one pot baked ziti that is pretty good and quick to make. I would watch carefully the time needed to cook the pasta as different brands cook differently.
https://www.food.com/recipe/am...

My Grandmother was from Naples and Grandfather from Sicily so had many different pastas and sauces growing up. She did prefer butter and him EVO. Her mother was from France so cream sauces were also made but I never really cared for them. But the pasta was always finished in the sauce. And the pasta water was udes to adjust the thickness of them.

Alice, I saved the ziti recipe, it sounds good and I like easy.

I don't turn my nose up at one-skillet meals- like Bob says, after work you want EE ZEE.
I may put a half box of macaroni in the skillet, water about to cover, bring to boil, add a cup or two of leftover meaty sauce, watch how the pasta cooks, you don't want it stuck to the pan now too watery, finish maybe by adding some cream, or cream cheese, or ricotta and mozz.
Mark made the ground beef-cream soup version of stroganoff today. Sauce in skillet, noodles cooked separate but then stirred in. I came home at 5:20, threw broccoli in the micro, and we scarfed it down.

I repurposed some of the leftover chuck roast into a soup for tonight. It was really rich and flavorful. I enjoyed it.

AG - make your own pizza. That's what we had for dinner tonight. But the village I grew up in, just east of Rochester, NY, had a very large Italian population; so I grew up with it and started learning to make it from a young age. Only thing I'm not really happy with is the pepperoni I find around here and I've settled on substituting Hot Genoa Salami.

Tom that soup looks very good. My mother used to put salami on pizza , thanks for the reminder, will have to try it again. If I use pepperoni on pizza I fry it first to get some of the grease out. Does anyone else make pizza on other things like English muffins or Italian bread ?, makes a quick easy lunch. Tonight is going to be beer batter cod , crab cake and a few tater tots.

I honestly can't stand pepperoni. Never could.

A jambalaya shrimp bowl tonight. Don't remember the brand but not bad. Needs about 4 more pieces of shrimp.

It was a Rotary lunch day for me, which means dinner for lunch, so it was lunch for dinner. Lunch: Mixed green salad, complete with parm and croutons ( ), rigatoni with a ground beef sauce (meh), and a decent chicken parm. For dinner, I had a nice tuna melt on toasted baguette pieces, chips and homemade pickles. Just right. And yes, easy button stuff!

Leftover pizza here. Trying to get things outside ready for some brutal cold arriving early next week.

I think the posts on pasta will help me make better use of it. I do associate pasta with Italy, but then remember dishes like stroganoff, goulash, ramen, lo mein, pho, etc. I expect it has spread far and wide and been adapted to other native cuisines for a long time. Not too far to get across the Adriatic Sea and, in a larger geographic old world sense, the Medierranean is historically a major trade route. According to the Insider Monkey webpage, Italy consumes more capita than any other country coming in at 25.3kg per capita. The 10 following Italy are all over the place (2) Venezuela (3) Tunesia (4) Greece (5) Switzerland (6) Sweden (7) United States (8) Iran (9) Chile (10) Peru and coming in at (11) is Germany with 8.0kg per capita. There's a world trip there visiting places and trying out pasta dishes .

If I recall right pasta was first made in China with wheat and rice flours.

NJBob said: If I recall right pasta was first made in China with wheat and rice flours.

Maybe the trade route in the Mediterranean came from a different direction than I was thinking. I was thinking across the Adriatic into the Balkans and from there into eastern Europe and Russia. Maybe it showed up ala Marco Polo traveling back home along the old silk road from the Orient. Dried pasta should have made a good travel food to take on a trip.

Good chilly afternoon all,

Hoping everyone is staying warm and toasty today. Here, the temp is not bad at 53 but the wind is fierce, cold and very biting. We knew it was going to start raining abut 11 a.m. today so we got up and out super early. Hit TJ's and Safeway to replenish groceries and then put gas in the car. Got home about 10:50 this morning and as if right on cue the winds and rain started up at 11:15. So yay us! Got done and home before it started.
Bouts of wind, rain or hail and just a general cold and gloomy day here. Thankfully it will stop around 3 or 4 this afternoon. Next few days promise to be nice. (Good! Maybe we can get the darn roof finally finished! ) The weekend should be real nice though with plenty of sun and more seasonal temps in the low 60s and upper 50s which is where we should be. It will also be warm enough at night that I won't have to cover the plants so that's good news also.

Ann and Donald.... For the acorn tips. Much appreciated and glad you found the information useful/helpful.

Ann... Dave has been experimenting with making pizza. We should try it more often. So far we have had decent attempts but nothing rave worthy or even close to what I remember having back east. Practice makes perfect I guess in this case. Bummer you can't find good pepperoni. The last bit we got was from TJs and quite good and not the least bit greasy. Otherwise we use the pre sliced packaged Hormel brand. It never seems to get greasy and always cooks up nice without burning or shriveling. I'll have to photograph the package for you. That way you can check and see if your stores carry it.
Do you have a favorite pizza sauce recipe you love? If so, I'd be interested if you don't mind sharing. Also if you have any hints, tips or tricks for getting good crust. While I am not awed by Pizza Hut's pizza, I will say their pan pizza crust is one of the better ones I've had. Love the texture and somehow it manages to be both chewy but with a crispy crust.

Donald... Yes, you are right. All the trade routes interconnected back then. Very interesting time in history, politics, food and all else. It isn't clear who exactly 'created' pasta first. Arabs, Chinese and Italians all had some simultaneous coexisting version of noodles as well as some version of 'stuffed' pasta/dumplings. I do know the Italians were the first ones to ever boil noodles in water thus serving a pasta that most closely resembles what we are having today. Like you said, good travel food. Noodles were lightweight, dry and shelf stable making them super easy to transport. Just a quick addition of some sort of hot liquid/broth or sauce transformed them into a meal.

Bob...Interesting about the Martha Stewart recipe. Not sure I'd try it but it doesn't sound horrendous.
And interesting about your family. Since N. Italy borders France, Switzerland and Austria, it isn't a big shock to see why butter, cream, meats and egg pasta are so popular there compared to S. Italy.
I'm all for meals in a hurry on busy work nights. A good pasta sauce doesn't take that long to whip up. I'll have to post a recipe for one you can have done in about 20-30 minutes. And I'm jealous of your crab cakes! Oh yum! Crab is very expensive and not always available here.

Tom...Awesome roast and kudos on repurposing it to a very nice looking soup. Both look amazing and I would have loved either for dinner. Big yum to you on those two.

Sean...Nice you got treated to a decent lunch/dinner out with the Rotary Club. Sorry the pasta wasn't up to par but the fact they got the chicken parm right was good news. Enjoy your down time.

All...Yesterday made a favorite. Citrus-Marinated Chicken Thighs. Lots of bold citrus flavors and shows off bone in /skin on thighs. Skin gets crispy and gets such fantastic color. Such a yummy recipe. The zesting, chopping and prep do take a bit of time but IF you were willing to make the marinade a day ahead this would be a great EZ, quick weeknight meal.
With the marinade already made you can just toss the chicken into it and put in the fridge before work. Take out when you come home and you're ready to go. From that point it cooks up in 30-45 minutes in the broiler. During that time you can cook up some rice and make salad. Great dish and comes in under an hour as long as you are ready with the marinade.






CITRUS-MARINATED CHICKEN THIGHS

INGREDIENTS:
1 bunch scallions/green onions; thinly sliced
1/2 bunch cilantro, leaves and the tender stems only.
4 large clove of garlic; chopped
1 Tablespoon finely grated lime zest*
2 Tablespoons finely grated orange zest*
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
1/4 cup reduced sodium soy sauce*
2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
1 Tablespoon Kosher salt*
2 pounds bone in-skin on chicken thighs.

INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Wash, dry and slice thinly the scallions. Set aside 1/4 cup of the sliced scallions to use as a topping for the chicken.
2. Zest your orange and lime/s. Set the zest aside in a small bowl.
3. Juice your lime/s and orange and set juice aside in a measuring cup.
4. Wash, dry and rough chop the cilantro.
5. In a food processor or blender pulse the cilantro, garlic, orange and lime zests and the orange and lime juices, soy sauce, oil, salt and remaining scallions. Process until a coarse/chunky puree forms.
6. Set aside 1/4 cup of the marinade.
7. Put the remaining marinade in a large resealable plastic bag. Add the chicken thighs and seal the bag. Turn to coat half way. Minimum chilling time is 2 hours; max is 1 day.*
8. Preheat broiler and put the chicken skin side down on a foil-lined broiler proof baking sheet/pan.
9. Discard the rest of marinade and broil chicken until lightly brown; about 5 minutes.
10. Turn chicken over (skin side up) and continue cooking until cooked through and temp on chicken reads 165F internally. This takes approximately 12-15 minutes.
11. Serve the chicken with reserved marinade and scallions. Enjoy.

CHEF'S NOTES.
1. Lime and orange zests. Fresh fruit zests really does make this sing. Don't skip it! Bonus is you also get the juice to use and won't have to use bottled lime and orange juice. Can use it if needed but fresh really makes this dish shine.
2. Make sure you use LOW sodium soy sauce. Otherwise it is just way too salty and unpleasant tasting in this dish.
3. If you have salt issues you can reduce the amount of Kosher salt to half. If you do use full sodium soy sauce I would completely skip adding Kosher salt to this dish.
3. Reason why you can't keep/use the marinade beyond a day is that you are using fresh fruit juices and not bottled. Bottled orange and lime juice has preservatives which is why you can keep it a long time. Fresh does not. Due to lack of preservatives it gets funky after a day.

Dinner tonight will be chicken cheater enchiladas. I bought a deli chicken just before X-mas and had saved the breasts in the freezer. My intention was to make chicken noodle soup but I didn't. So since I've been craving Mexican going to make the enchiladas. Also going to make some beef stew and lasagna! More about that later and pics to come.
Happy Day All,
AG

AG, great looking dinner and the recipe reads wonderfully well. Definitely right up my alley. And I absolutely agree with you about trying to save sauce made with fresh fruit. I had leftover orange pomegranate sauce and did attempt to save it. Nope.

I did, however, do a good job of pealing the duck carcass. It gave me some shredded duck and pieces with skin attached. The carcass itself I used to make a broth which I think will make for a good base for dumplings or would also be nice with just some julienned veggies atop, Asian-ish.

Asian-ish was the profile I went with for the leftovers. The shredded duck was cooked in a bit of duck fat with scallions and hit with both soy sauce and duck sauce. The skin/fat pieces got crisped in the oven and added atop. All served over rice. And because I like the orange rind touch so much, I went with that again. Very nice...not to mention easy!

Since I mentioned them yesterday I made a couple of English Muffin pizzas tonight with a spinach salad .