Long Pasta / Pasta Lunga

Dried long pasta in the form of spaghetti is probably the best known pasta of all time, and was certainly one of the first types to be exported from Italy. Spaghetti is still very widely used, but nowadays there are many other varieties of long pasta that look and taste just as good, such as tagliatelle, lingunie and capelli d'angelo.

Most dried long shapes are avaliable in plain durum wheat only. The shapes made with egg (all'uovo) are very delicate, and are either packed in nests or compressed as waves. Fine long pasta, such as spaghetti, is far too delicate to be made with egg. Fresh long pasta, however, can be made with egg because it is not so brittle.

There are no hard and fast rules when matching pasta to sauce, so experiment with alternative varieties to add interest to your cooking, always remembering that long pasta is best served with either a thin, clinging sauce or a smooth, thick sauce.

If too thin and watery, the sauce will simply run off the long strands; if too chunky or heavy, the sauce will fall to the bottom of the bowl and you will be left with a bowl full of chunks and no pasta to eat it with. Clinging sauces made with olive oil, butter, cream, eggs, finely greated cheese and chopped fresh herbs are good with long pasta. When ingredients such as vegetables, fish and meat are added to a smooth thick sauce, they should be very finely chopped.