Pasta

Pasta is made with flour and may include water, egg, spinach, tomato, mushrooms, or cheese. It is sold dried or fresh and can be chewy, firm, or soft when cooked. Cooks boil, simmer, bake, or stuff pasta and pair it with tomato, cheese, or olive oil.

May contain egg
May contain dairy
May contain milk

About the plain ingredient, not packaged products; general information, not medical advice. Details

Category: Grains, flours & pasta
Texture: Firm, chewy, soft
Cooked most in: Europe, Africa, The Americas
Top country: Italy
Dishes: 17 in the catalogue

Photo: David Adam Kess · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

In the kitchen

How to use pasta

Typical ways to cook or use it

Bake
Boil simmer
Stuff

Made from

flour
water (sometimes)
egg (sometimes)
spinach (sometimes)
tomato (sometimes)
edible mushroom (sometimes)
cheese (sometimes)

Preparing it

For fresh pasta dough, make a well in the flour and mix in the egg with a fork. A pasta machine can gradually thin sheets of fresh dough.

Cooking with it

Salt the cooking water for unsalted Italian pasta. Pasta cooked until firm may soften further when briefly finished in sauce. At lower cooking temperatures, stir more to prevent sticking; some filled pasta can break apart at higher temperatures.

Goes well with

Flavour

Taste and texture

Texture, dried

Firm

Texture, cooked

Chewy
Firm
Soft

Shopping

Choosing and storing pasta

Keeping it

Fridge · cooked
Freezer · cooked

Sold as: Dried, Fresh
Availability: Supermarkets

Around the world

Where pasta is cooked

17 dishes in the catalogue use pasta. Here is where they come from.

Dishes by continent

Countries whose dishes use it most

Counts are catalogued dishes from each country that list pasta among their ingredients.

Origins

13XX/14XX
Dried pasta gained popularity partly because it was easy to store.
1740 · Italy
Venice issued a license for the first pasta factory.
1859 · Hungary
Hungary's first pasta factory was founded in Pest.

On the table

Dishes made with pasta

13 of the 17 catalogued dishes that use it, spread across the countries they come from.

Crawfish Monica
United States
Makaroni schotel
Europe, Indonesia
Aftir oukessoul
Algeria
Mebakbeka
Libya
Cacio e pepe
Italy
Tetrazzini
United States
Pasta al pomodoro
Italy
Pasta con le sarde
Italy
Pastasciutta antifascista
Italy
Pesto pasta
Italy
Pasta salad
Italy
Trida
Tumact me tulez

Dish lists come from Wikidata; a dish counts when its recorded ingredients include pasta.

Good to know

Diet and allergens: pasta in detail

These notes describe the plain ingredient. Packaged and prepared products vary, so read the label; for allergies and medical diets ask a doctor or dietitian.

Allergens: Sometimes eggs (only when the optional ingredient is used)Sometimes milk (only when the optional ingredient is used)
Animal origin: Sometimes egg (only when the optional ingredient is used)Sometimes dairy (only when the optional ingredient is used)

Family

Related forms

Kinds: fettuccine, macaroni, spaghetti, tagliatelle, vermicelli