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Pasta lingo: shapes, meanings and how to make your own

The singer Lucretia Borgia pulled into Castelfranco Emilia, Italy, one stormy night (there's always a stormy night in pasta legends). The innkeeper became so fascinated with her intense beauty that he spied on her through a keyhole and got a peek at her wondrous navel (he no doubt saw other memorable things, but that's another story).

He immediately rushed to the kitchen and, in a fit of lust, created tortellini, a stuffed pasta that looks an awful lot like the sexy belly button of a famous diva.

There's a similar story: Venus and Jupiter arrive at Bologna. This time, the innkeeper sees only Venus' navel. Same result - heavenly tortellini.

In Italy, there's a story for every pasta, and a pasta for every story. If you don't like the pasta story, you adapt one or you launch your own, then prepare for a lifetime of defending it. A country with a national pastime of arguing pasta shapes cannot be too bad.

How many pasta shapes? Hundreds and hundreds. It seems every community in Italy claims its own. Then we have the crossovers that have become popular worldwide, such as spaghetti and lasagna.

Food researchers count more than 600 pasta shapes. Then there are the offshoots, the smaller and bigger ones of the same categories. Although some specific shapes have become associated with certain recipes, such as clam linguine, most shapes are interchangeable. Still, no self-respecting Italian chef would ever use wagon wheels or radiators in a recipe calling for ziti.

You already know and love spaghetti and macaroni. I've assembled the following to expand your pasta world into discoveries that will leave you wondering, "Now what body part does this remind me of?"

Pasta language

Italian pasta shapes are coded by their ending: -ini, -elli, -illi or -etti mean "little," and -oni, or "one," means "large."

Other suffixes include -otti ("largish") and -acci ("badly made").

Example: Spaghettini is very thin, spaghetti is the common medium round rod and spaghettoni is thick, round noodles.

Al dente pasta is cooked until firm but not hard and not mushy. It offers "tooth" or "bite" -- Italians like it that way.

Al forno is pasta cooked twice -- boiled and then baked -- such as lasagna. The boiling is for half the time of fully cooked pasta, very al dente.

Italian pasta A to Z

(Note: This is only a sampling of the hundreds of shapes.)

Acine de pepe: "Peppercorns," small beads, for soups.

Anellini: "Rings," tiny, used in soups and salads.

Barbina: "Little beards," spaghetti woven into nests.

Bucatini: "Little holed ones," hollow spaghetti, for casseroles and stir-fry.

Capellini: "Little hairs," including capelli d'angelo, the famed angel hair thin spaghetti, best for thick sauces.

Cavatappi: "Corkscrews," macaroni spirals, good with meat, cream, vegetable or oil sauces and salads.

Cavatelli: "Buns," look like tiny hot-dog rolls, for thick, chunky sauces, seafood and vegetable dishes.

Conchiglonni: "Large shells," largest stuffed shells, also in medium and small sizes.

Ditalini: "Small thimbles," short, straight tubes, for baked casseroles, soups and salads.

Elbow macaroni: "Dumpling," the classic for cheese sauce and casseroles.

Farfalle: "Butterflies," bow ties, thick, hearty, for a variety of sauces, soups and salads.

Fedelini: "Little faitiful ones," a larger spaghetti in diameter, for medium sauces.

Fetuccine: "Little slices," ribbon pasta, for soups and thin sauces.

Fusilli: "Little spindles," twisted spaghetti, for soups and salads, and it holds dressing well.

Gemelli: "Twins," pairs of round noodles twisted together, for meats and cream sauces.

Lagane: "Little slices," narrower than fetuccine, for clam sauce.

Lasagna: "Cooking pot," very wide noodles with fluted edges.

Linguine: "Little tongues," best in salads, stir-fry, seafood sauces and baked casseroles.

Manicotti: "Sleeves," large, rimmed tubes, for stuffing and baking.

Orzo: "Barley," small, rice shaped, for soups, salads and side dishes.

Penne: "Pens," medium length tubes with ridges, diagonally cut on both ends.

Ravioli: "Turnip," square and stuffed, for heavier sauces.

Radiatori: "Radiators," shaped like old-fashioned heaters, for soups and heavy sauces.

Rigatoni: "Large lined ones," large, slightly curved tubes, for medium sauces and baking.

Rotelle: "Little wheels," wagon wheels, for soups.

Spaghetti: "Little twine," by far the most common pasta, holds sauces well.

Tortellini: "Little pies," ring shaped, stuffed with cheese, meat or spinach, eaten in broth with cream and ragu.

Vermicelli: "Little worms," slightly thinner than fedelini, for light sauces.

Ziti: "Bridegrooms," long, narrow, hollow strands, for salads and baked dishes. It's also good luck for weddings, of course.

Make your own

Homemade pasta is light and easy to eat. It may be dried or cooked wet. It cooks faster than commercial pasta and resists sticking and mushy texture.

All you need is a rolling pin and mixing bowl to make your own. For those of the less muscular persuasion, pasta machines roll out the dough and cut it into shapes. The most famous manual model is the Atlas with different cutters at $100. The bargain CucinaPro is about $30.

Manual pasta machines create flat noodles. If you want round pasta like macaroni, you'll need an extrusion machine. Atlas makes a manual one for $69. A powered model such as the Lello is $199. Extruders generate heat from friction that changes the noodle texture.

Meat grinders have also gained double duty as pasta extruders with special disks. Wooden drying racks, called alberi, or "trees," are available for $10. Roma makes a popular model. You can make your own with a drill, wooden dowels and minimum skills.

Homemade pasta

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1 cup flour, whole wheat or semolina</li>

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1 cup flour, white, unbleached</li>

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1 teaspoon salt</li>

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2 eggs, large</li>

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2 tablespoons olive oil</li>

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2 tablespoons water, more if needed</li>

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Sift the flours and salt into a mixer bowl. Add eggs, olive oil and water. Mix with bread hook or wooden spoon until dough is composed. It should be satiny. If sticky, add more flour.

Roll dough into a ball and place in an oiled bowl. Cover with oiled wax paper. Chill in refrigerator for two hours.

Cut the dough into quarter-cup pieces. Roll each to less than a quarter-inch thick. Cut into noodles, cook wet or dried.

Dried noodles must be thoroughly dried before storing or they will mold.

In living color

It's easy to turn homemade pasta into colored pasta. The flavor changes somewhat but the impact can be astonishing:

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Black (pasta nera): Add squid or cuttlefish ink to dough.</li>

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Green (pasta verde): Add finely chopped spinach or basil.</li>

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Purple (pasta viola): Use red-beet juice in dough.</li>

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Red (pasta rossa): Pure&#233; carrots or tomatoes and use juice.</li>

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Orange (pasta arancione): Use mashed squash or pumpkin.</li>

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Buon airetti

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"Neapolitans Eating Macaroni" is one of the earliest depictions of Italy's favorite food, in 1806.</li>

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B. Pinturicchio

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n. "Lucrezia Borgia," with her clothes on.</li>

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Marcato

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The Atlas manual pasta roller and cutter is the world's favorite.</li>

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Cavatappi</li>

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Penne</li>

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Tortellini</li>

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Farfalle</li>

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Fusilli</li>

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Barbina</li>

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Radiatore</li>

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