Italian Cooking Show: Guide to Pasta Shapes & Pasta Recipes

Italian Cooking Show

Italian Cooking Show by WebVisionItaly.com presents the guide to Italian pasta shapes. To get the most out of the Italian food recipes presented by the world's best Italian chefs who are featured in each episode of the Italian Cooking Show it is necessary to have an authentic guide to Italian pasta shapres.

Pasta comes in many kinds of shapes and sizes. There are many types of pasta, with pasta shapes a work of art. The pasta types are named to match the look of the pasta shapes. Below is the Italian Cooking Show list of pasta with descriptions of each pasta and its shape:

• Agnolotti – similar to ravioli, but smaller. This is usually stuffed with meat, cheese, or vegetables.
• Bucatini - Like a spaghetti with a hole through the middle this pasta shape is alomst like a straw. Bucatini's pasta shape makes it somewhat difficult to eat but is absolutely delicious, especially with an amatriciana sauce.
  
• Calciuni – fried ravioli
• Cannelloni – large, tube-shaped pasta, usually filled with meat or cheese.
• Cappellini – very thin pasta, often called angel hair.
• Capelletti - Like a tortelini perfect for soup
  
• Conchiglie – shells of pasta
• Farfalle – shaped like a butterfly or bow tie
• Fettuccine – thin noodles that are somewhat wider than spaghetti
• Fusilli – corkscrews
• Gnocchi – potato-based pasta dumplings
• Lasagna – Broad, flat noodles, usually baked with meat, cheese and tomato sauce
• Linguine – Flat noodles, wider than spaghetti, but narrower than fettuccine
• Maccheroni – elbow-shaped tubes, also called macaroni
• Orecchiette – small belly buttons
• Pappardelle – broad, long noodles
• Penne – short pasta tubes
• Ravioli – pillows of pasta, usually stuffed with cheese, meat, or vegetables
• Rigatoni – short, large tubes
• Sorrentino - large pasta pillow puff filled with ricotta and spinach
  
• Spaghetti – long, thin strands of pasta
• Tagliatelle – long, flat strands of pasta
• Tallarines - Like a fettucine
  
• Tortellini – small, folded pillows of pasta, usually stuffed with cheese, meat or vegetables
• Ziti – large noodles, shaped like macaroni

For more Italian pasta ideas and homemade pasta recipes, click for the Italian Cooking Show.