How well do you know your types of pasta? Guido and Aurelio Tanzi, Italian brothers living in New York, perfected the fusilli-making machine 100 years ago. In the decades since, the helter-skelter spiral shape has boomed in commercial popularity, thanks to its high surface area and even cooking time. While some chefs may turn their nose up at the spiral, it’s now the third most popular shape in Italy according to Rachel Roddy’s An A-Z of Pasta.
The word pasta itself has Latin and Greek origins, meaning paste, of flour and water. This simple combination is then pressed, rolled, extruded, curled, and pushed into an array of pasta shapes and styles – sometimes filled. While the combinations of different types of pasta are endless, each town, chef and family will have a preferred style, so pasta is about getting to know the nuances of each.
This is not an exhaustive guide to pasta types but instead an expert guide to popular and lesser-known pasta shapes. Gourmet Traveller talked to two of Australia’s top pasta chefs for their list of favourite shapes and their uses to get you thinking about, cooking and discussing all the types of pasta available.
“There’s a match-making element to putting pastas and sauces together,” says Diana Desensi of Byron Bay’s Pixie Food & Wine. “Pasta is meditative for all of us. I don’t know whether it’s a chef thing or an Italian thing. It’s a luscious, beautiful thing to make. Getting the dough right and then eating pasta you’ve made that day, there’s nothing quite like it.”
We spoke to Desensi, along with Scott McComas-Williams of Palazzo Salato and Ragazzi, to learn about some of their favourite pasta shapes, and explore the origins, tips and tricks for each.
Different types of filled pasta
Tortellini
Taking its name from torta – Latin for filled – this navel-shaped pasta is always fun to make, “but you have to get the right amount of air out of it,” says Desensi. “You’ve got to put so much flavour into one tortellino. That’s something a lot of people miss the mark on,” she says. For traditionalists, Desensi is a fan of tortellini in brodo (broth) – a classic dish. “In Milan we had it at a little trattoria. The handmade tortellini were tiny, smaller than a five-cent piece. To get something so homely – chicken stock with some pasta – done right, it’s insane.”
Scarpinocc
Bon-bon-like in shape, scarpinocc is said to represent a handmade cloth shoe. “It’s cute but functional,” says McComas-Williams of the dimple in the middle, which makes this shape a perfect vessel for a butter or stock sauce. “Because of the way it’s folded and pinched at the end, there’s two and even four pieces of pasta coming together, so it’s a real textural difference.” He recommends a silkier filling, such as potato purée, to build on this contrast. “You couldn’t go stuffing it with a sausage farce, you need something smooth. Something silky that’s going to ooze out.”
Ravioli
“Our ravioli dough contains egg white. We always use whole egg for stuffed pastas, as the protein in it makes it easier to fold,” says McComas-Williams. With the first mentions of ravioli appearing in one of the oldest medieval cookbooks published in the early 1300s, it’s one of the first and most classical-filled pastas. Alongside the square-shaped ravioli is the raviolo, which is rounded, and either style can be served as a single large pillow.
Agnolotti del plin
These small folded pockets are like dumplings that can hold a heavier filling, with “plin” meaning pinch. “It’s one of the smartest shapes because of the way it pleats over and cups the sauce. Traditionally it’s served with a lovely brown butter and a chicken or pork stock,” says McComas-Williams. From the north of Italy, the elegant shape can hold a meaty farce as the filling, be it mortadella and ricotta or braised and ground pork loin. “I hold this shape close to me because it set my career on its current trajectory,” explains Desensi. “[It] looks unassuming but it holds the sauce well.”
Hand-rolled pasta types
Maltagliati
Maltagliati means badly cut dough. “[This pasta shape is] traditionally a peasant style of dish, made with offcuts from other pasta,” says Desensi. “It’s thinly rolled, so when you put your hand behind it you can see it. It’s really silky.” At Pixie, Desensi serves with a pancetta and veal sausage ragù with artichoke and lemon to cut through the richness of the sauce.
Cavatelli
The origins of this pasta spread far and wide across southern Italy. Akin to its ear-like cousin, orecchiette, cavatelli is usually made from semolina (durum wheat) and water. “Down south they grow durum wheat, which thrives in drier conditions” explains McComas-Williams. “It’s beautiful because the gluten |is stronger, so you don’t need the egg in it, [meaning] it’s got more of a chew.”Make it by scraping the dough along a ridged board, fork or a cheese grater.
Tajarin or tagliolini
In traditional Piedmontese dialect, tagliolini means cut. These thin ribbons of egg-yolk-based pasta are similar to fettuccine. “Up in Piedmont, they use just “00” flour and egg yolk. It’s so yellow it looks like it has turmeric in it,” says McComas-Williams. “We do that in winter with hazelnut and truffle.”
Trofie
Hailing from Liguria in northern Italy, this short, spun pasta shape is best known for being paired with traditional pesto. “It should be served with green pesto from the north,” says Desensi. “I personally wouldn’t have pesto any other way.”
Pici
“It’s very labour intensive but it’s a great noodle,” says McComas-Williams. To make pici, you roll out semolina and Tipo “00” flour-based dough into long rope-like pieces that aren’t uniform in diameter. This playful, hearty pasta will hold up to anything – from olive oil, pancetta and breadcrumbs through to a rich ragù. “We tend to do it in autumn with duck and mushrooms,” he adds.
Tonnarelli or chitarra
“It means on the guitar,” explains Desensi. Rolling dough across a stringed apparatus creates a square, beautifully textured strand-like pasta. “When you press it on the chitarra [guitar] instead of putting it through the [pasta] laminator, you’re not compressing it, [so it] has an excellent hydration level as well.”
Farfalle
Farfalle (or butterflies) have fluted edges, made from a thin laminated egg dough. “Because it’s folded in the middle, it ends up being bitey in the middle,” says McComas-Williams. “All those ridges pick up sauce, as does the fluted edge. The flat part is silky and smooth.” When making fresh farfalle, always leave time for the shapes to dry out to ensure they don’t go floppy when cooked.
Extruded pasta shapes
Conchiglie
This conch-shell shaped pasta varies in size, from spoon-sized mouthful to palm-sized cupping shells. This then dictates the pasta’s purpose, such as cupping minestrone soup or being stuffed and baked. “Conchiglie are fun. They scoop up all the beautiful sauce and it’s great for sharing,” says McComas-Williams.
Mafaldine
“It’s a great shape: it’s textural, it’s versatile and those ridges are perfect for catching sauce,” says McComas-Williams. This frilly pasta will suit anything from a carbonara to seafood classics. “It’s an all-rounder and you can’t really stuff up your sauce choice,” adds McComas-Williams.
Gigli or trottole
Born out of Naples during the industrialisation of pasta production, when extruders were first invented, these twisted shapes cling to chunkier sauces such as ragù, amatriciana or braised chard, with chunks of guanciale and pecorino. “If you look very closely, the edges are ridged. This is from bronze dies,” says McComas-Williams. Bronze dies on extruders rough up the edges of the pasta to add texture, replicating pasta’s texture when made traditionally on wooden boards.
Pasta Recipes
