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The pasta products (pasta in the singular, paste in the plural) are made of wheat flour or semolina.
They differ from other cereal products for the following reasons :
- They are cooked in “wet environment”. Contrary to the bread or to the galette (focaccia in italian, focacius in latin), pasta is not cooked with dry heat (oven or hob), but in a “wet environment” like boiling water or steam. What about the Lasagne cooked in the oven (al forno or pasticciate ) Even if the dish is put in the oven, the pasta is cooked by the surrounding sauce (e.g. Tomato sauce or white sauce).
- They have shape. Although the mush or the porridge is a preparation of wheat and water, cooked cooked in “wet environment”, it is shapeless unlike pasta. The last one usually comes in form of threads, ribbons, squares, balls or grain. Nevertheless, the border between mush and pasta is not always so neat. For instance, the gnocchis dough is made of wheat flour but cannot be kneaded. They will acquire their definitive shape when they will be put in trembling water. As for pasta has already its shape before being boiled. The same can be said of the German knödel, the knedel, the Belgian stierstel (Arlon), strieble, spätzle and the Alsatian knoepfe.
The avatars of the maccherone illustrates perfectly the long-life confusion between types. It derivates from macco, meaning fava bean mush and used as either for cereal gnocchis and for tagliatelles. At the XVI century, the italian cook was still speaking of the minestra di maccaroni detti gnocchi.....
If today ... some pastas are still home-made ( hand-made or with a robot), but most of them are made by specialised factories.
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