Hope you’re indulging in some pasta for National Noodle Month!
Did you know there are some 350 varieties available?
I love pronouncing all the names; makes me feel molto Italiano, and brings back memories of gondolas, afternoon siestas, dinners at 10, and Trevi Fountain.
Anyway, take this quiz to see how many pasta shapes you can identify. I got a shameful 14 out of 24, which indicates I either need to go to pasta school or hire a buff, dark-haired, opera-singing chef named Marcello to cook all my meals.
photo by mat.teo
Buon Appetito!
And if you didn’t join us for spaghetti yesterday, click here. Are you a twirler or a cutter?
Jama's Alphabet Soup 
Bring on Marcello
I only got 15 correct, so I need Marcello, too! Also- most of the ones I got right weren’t because I am a pasta genius, it was because apparently I know some Italian/Latin? I focused more on the words. lol
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Isn’t that photo just to die for? I’m quite sure I’ll fail the quiz since we identify our noodles in sort of unorthodox ways around here… “curly pasta”, “tunnel pasta”, “boat pasta”…
Marcello would be horrified.
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Marcello is our friends’ older son, and he doesn’t cook at all! I only got 15 correct.
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Pasta
Jama,
I got 17 correct. I should have gotten more answers right–because I come from a pasta loving family. My husband makes homemade pasta: ravioli, spaghetti, cappelletti, lasagna noodles, etc. He also makes homemade pizza dough. He’s a great cook!
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Pasta
Elaine M.
I forgot to leave my name in my previous comment. I’m the lucky lady whose husband makes pasta from scratch.
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Re: Bring on Marcello
Marcello’s a hunk, so I think there’s enough of him to go around :D. I’ll send him right over. Hope you like opera.
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Ah, you’re missing something without the real Italian names. They are, dare I say, poetic!!
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Marcello, Jr., could use some lessons from his father. Since you got 15, I don’t feel so bad. 🙂
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Re: Pasta
So, Elaine, you MARRIED Marcello!! What a lucky woman. No wonder you’re inspired to write such great poetry.
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Tanita Says 🙂
Okay, I have to take that again in a few weeks — once Marcello’s finished with the tutorial… Isn’t it weird how shaped things seem like they’ll taste better?
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I got 19 right; I might have gotten more, given the verbal cues about shape, but I thought I *knew* the names, and went against logic. Oh well. I would’ve gotten a few wrong in any event. Pasta, yum! Except for the bow ties – never liked them.
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Re: Tanita Says 🙂
Shapes do make a difference — not only wih the aesthetic appeal of the dish, but they’re also sometimes crucial to the flavor — how well they do or do not hold sauce, etc.
But I can see you’re playing the novice just so you can have Marcello hang around a little longer . . .
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Wow, 19’s good! I did the same thing, going with what I thought the names were, instead of using the verbal cues. I’ve always thought the bow ties were cute :).
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They’re cute to LOOK at, but I don’t like eating them – I find the pinchy part in the middle never cooks properly, leaving me with uneven pasta – okay on the outside, crunchy/chewy on the middle part. Blech.
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Oooh, national pasta month – yum! I’m a twirler with spaghetti. I learned it as a kid, mostly because it was a challenge. 😉
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I imagine you’re an expert twirler now :).
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