(rigatoni, elbow macaroni), specialty (lasagna, manicotti) and egg products. Nowadays we have

dozens of different pasta shapes available to us and many more to restaurateurs.

A relatively new marketing gimmick has introduced all kinds of colored pasta products,

made by adding either natural color, like concentrated spinach or tomato, or artificial chemical

coloring. A couple of particularly unusual are black pasta, colored with squid ink, and brown

pasta, made with unsweetened chocolate. These are not for everyday meals. The added coloring

agent is in such small amounts that you barely detect any flavor change, but the unusual

appearance of colored pasta makes it worth serving it occasionally.

The demand for a fresh look and attractive presentation has increased the choices of

available pasta shapes and sizes. Even though trendy recipes call for one or several specific-

shaped pasta as ingredient, spaghetti and macaroni are still the most popular. Short-shaped pasta,

like shells and alphabets, are often soup ingredients, as are some long products such as broken up

vermicelli. Oriental cuisines use long pasta which ranges in thickness from angel hair to

spaghetti. The variety of shapes has a practical as well as aesthetic aspect. Some hold certain

sauces better than others.

Convention also has much to do with the specific use of different shapes. For instance, a

tomato sauce looks good on any long pasta product like spaghetti, spaghettini or fettucini, but

appears odd on wide egg noodles or on tiny peppercorn-shaped acini di pepe, though the dish

should taste exactly the same.

Pasta-makers produce all these different shapes with special dies through which they

press the pasta dough. Each shape needs its own die, and each die is custom made at a cost close

to $5000. Pasta dies, thick, large metal discs with a number of specially-shaped holes that the

raw dough is forced through, are only made by one company in the U.S. They have 313

different-shaped dies in their catalog! That, however, includes similar shapes with a number of

slight variation. For instance, there are 11 different smooth elbow macaroni, eight different

ridged elbow macaroni and 16 different spaghetti-like products from the thinnest angel hair pasta

to an extra fat spaghetti, fat as a Japanese chop stick.

Within the last several years, smaller pasta manufacturers have begun to produce shapes

for special occasions or seasons, for instance, red heart-shaped pasta for Valentine's Day, blue

star-shaped pasta for Independence Day, green tree shapes for the holiday season. The cost of the

dies and the relatively small runs on these special shapes increase the cost considerably for

which you pay. These special-shaped pasta are not only appropriate for occasions, but delightful

on the plate.

The continual abrading action of the stiff, unwilling pasta dough squeezed through the

tiny holes gradually enlarges these holes and smoothes the sharp edges of the distinctive shapes.

Then it is time to replace the die. The lining of the die, called die insert, is now made of either

teflon or brass. Interestingly enough it makes a difference which one is in the die. Teflon

produces a smooth, shiny, very attractive-looking pasta, but because of its smooth surface, the

sauce won't adhere to it readily and the pasta tends to clump together. A brass die insert has a

rougher surface under the microscope. Pasta shaped with a brass die is not quite as attractive-

looking in the package but holds sauces better because of the slightly rougher surface, and the

strands don't clump together. Don’t bother trying to figure out which type you have on your

shelf.

Good pasta or not-so-good pasta

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