The pasta
glossary.
Eighteen useful terms, defined without turning dinner into an entrance exam.
- Al dente
- Cooked through but still offering clear, pleasant resistance at the centre.
- Soffritto
- Finely cut aromatic vegetables cooked gently as a flavour base.
- Mantecatura
- Finishing pasta or risotto by energetic mixing with fat and liquid to create cohesion.
- Ragù
- A family of meat sauces; not a synonym for every tomato sauce.
- Sugo
- A broad Italian word for a sauce or cooking juice.
- Salsa
- Sauce; context determines whether it is cooked, raw, smooth or textured.
- Sfoglia
- A rolled sheet of fresh pasta dough.
- Semola
- A granular durum-wheat milling product used for dried and some fresh pasta.
- Durum wheat
- A hard wheat whose protein and yellow endosperm suit pasta production.
- Trafilata al bronzo
- Pasta extruded through a bronze die, usually leaving a rougher surface.
- Pasta fresca
- Fresh pasta, including egg and water-and-semolina traditions.
- Pasta secca
- Dried pasta with low moisture for stable storage.
- Ripiena
- Filled pasta such as ravioli or tortellini.
- Pecorino Romano
- A firm, salty sheep's-milk cheese central to Roman pasta cooking.
- Parmigiano Reggiano
- A protected hard cow's-milk cheese from its designated production area.
- Guanciale
- Cured pork jowl with sweet fat, traditional in several Roman pasta dishes.
- Pancetta
- Cured pork belly, generally leaner and differently flavoured from guanciale.
- Passata
- Uncooked or lightly processed sieved tomato, smoother and less concentrated than tomato purée.