In Italy, there are more than 500 types of pasta, different in shape and size. Some pasta is so large that it can be stuffed, others are so small that it is often used in soups and salads. Certain types of sauces are suitable for each type of pasta. Of course, in one article it is impossible to list and describe in detail all types of pasta, but you can list the main groups and their differences.
Minute pasta
The easiest way to deal with instant pasta, tiny pasta, which is cooked for just a few minutes. If this pasta looks like rice, then it is either orzo or rice. The first is similar to long grain, and the second to round grain rice. The very round grains of the paste are called acini de pepe, or peppercorns. A paste that looks like tiny rings is called, in descending order of size, anelli, annelini and ochchi de perniche. Also, this type of paste includes tiny figured products - stellini stars, conchillette shells, fungini ears and tiny farfaline bows. All of these tiny types of pasta are used in soups and salads.
Often, at the end of the name of the paste, you can guess its size. So the names of tiny pasta end with "ini", with "etta" - more, with "they" - very large ones.
Filled pasta
The three types of filled pasta are like rolled dumplings. These are tortilla, tortellini and tortelloni, the latter being the largest. Also, large square Italian dumplings - ravioli and saccetoni, tiny rectangular envelopes - agnolotti and capeletti-like small hats - are prepared with the filling. Initially, they are sold dry without filling, but large “tubes” - canneloni and large shells - conciglioni - are placed on the table with minced meat. These types of pasta are often served with butter, creamy, or tomato sauce, or baked with a variety of semi-liquid red and white sauces. For pasta with filling, one can conditionally include wide layers of lasagna, which are sandwiched with meat or vegetable filling, sauce and sprinkled with cheese.
Italian "dumplings" are stuffed not only with meat, but also with vegetable mince.
Curly paste
Various types of curly pasta are great for thick sauces with pieces of vegetables or meat that "cling" to their corrugated surface. Such products include "twisted" tubes of marziani, fusilli and spirallini. The largest pasta of this type, fusilli bukati, looks like a tight spring. The curly paste also includes various types of penne from tiny pennettes to huge canneloni-like penne zita. A beautiful and unusual pasta that looks like a flower drawn by a child, fiori, a rotelle pasta looks like a wheel, and large farfalle bows are some of the most famous pasta outside of Italy.
Long pasta
Long pasta is thin like spaghetti or flat like linguine. Homogeneous, smooth, enveloping sauces are suitable for such a paste. Thin pasta can be called bucatini, spaghettoni, spaghetti, and spaghetti. Those that are even thinner are vermicelli, vermicelloni and cappellini. Long and flat pasta can be straight like bavetti or rolled into nests like tagyatelli, taglerini, fetuccine and parpadelle.
