A-Ads

Monday, October 3, 2011

Pasta meets sauce: secrets to the perfect pairing

Pasta meets sauce: secrets to the perfect pairing

(ARA) - "What's for dinner?" It's the question everyone loves to ask, and when the answer is "pasta," kids and parents alike are excited to share the table, counting down the minutes until it's time to eat.

Pairing the right pasta shape with the right sauce can be a supermarket stumper. Of course, if your children are fans of certain shapes or sizes, you'll know those varieties will bring fun to the table. But did you know that some pasta sauces cater to specific styles of pasta better than others?

Long cuts:
Spaghetti cuts are a traditional family favorite, and these long and thin strands pair well with just about any kind of lighter sauce. Tease your family's taste buds by combining spaghetti, or the thinner angel hair, with new sauce recipes from Barilla that bring Italian authenticity right to your dinner table. These sauces are all-natural, with vegetables sauteed in imported olive oil instead of water, and diced tomatoes instead of tomato puree. Some favorite recipes include traditional spaghetti with marinara and carbonara. For more robust, thicker pasta sauces like primavera, consider a flatter noodle such as fettuccine or linguine.

Short cuts:
Shorter pasta shapes have plenty of twists, turns and grooves for the sauce to better hug these styles. Sauces with vegetables and fragrant spices are best captured in shorter pastas like rigatoni, penne or shells to perfectly blend all the flavors in every bite. If your family enjoys a bit of spice, try combining Barilla's Arrabbiata Spicy Marinara sauce with penne to capture the tomato, garlic and parsley flavors with the spicy peppers. It's a very colorful meal, both in flavors and appearance.

Oven/baking cuts:
Cuts like manicotti and wavy lasagne are best used for baking in the oven and are traditionally paired with simpler sauces, such as a marinara or sauces flavored by mild herbs. They are the perfect pastas to combine with the new Barilla Toscana (Tuscan Herb) sauce, made with sauteed tomatoes, carrots and celery with garlic infused oil blended with oregano and marjoram. The aroma of this dish will have neighbors knocking on your door in hopes of joining you for dinner.

Barilla's new thicker, richer sauce recipes were designed to perfectly hug every forkful of pasta. Join in the hugging celebration by submitting your own perfect hug photo to the Barilla Facebook page at Facebook.com/BarillaUS.  Enter your perfect group hug, everyday hug or unique hug photo by Oct. 10 to win a trip for four to Italy. Visit the Facebook page for more information.

No comments:

Post a Comment