ITALIAN RECIPES TRADITIONAL AND CREATIVE 

The Italian pasta: the different varieties and how to make a homemade pasta

The pasta is certainly the symbol of the Italian cuisine, the basis of the mythical Mediterranean diet. Every Italian region has a lot of varieties.

We have devised this page for explaining  how to make each different variety. By clicking on the name of each kind of pasta you will be  linked to the page where you can find a  particularized description of the preparation, with many photos step by step. For the recipes,  made with the described varieties,  search in the section:  first courses pasta.

At first we distinguish several great categories based on the raw material : the common wheat flour and the semolina durum-wheat flour are the most used materials, but in the last time  was also rediscovered the spelt ( the ancient wheat). Otherwise does not belong to the Italian tradition the dough prepared with the rice flour.

Other important difference is between the pasta containing eggs and pasta without eggs . The aromatic pastas  (mushrooms, cuttlefish ink, or other materials) are a separate category.

Other category are the pasta not made with the wheat flour, like the dumplings and the passatelli. The gnocchi (dumplings) are made with potato flour while the passatelli with crumbled bread. 

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	with water	with eggs
durum wheat of semolina flour	SPAGHETTI MACCHERONI BUCATINI TROFIE ORECCHIETTE FUSILLI UMBRICHELLI FARFALLE GNOCCCHETTI SARDI STROZZAPRETI SPAGHETTI ALLA CHITARRA
mixed: durum wheat of semolina flour and common wheat flour	ROTOLO TESTAROLI	GARGANELLI
common wheat flour		TAGLIATELLE TAGLIOLINI LASAGNA ROSETTE CANNELLONI RAVIOLI TORTELLINI
bread		PASSATELLI CANEDERLI
semolina	SEMOLINA GNOCCHI COUS COUS
potato flour	DUMPLINGS/GNOCCHI

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