Elbow pasta is a popular choice for side dishes, casseroles, and macaroni and cheese. It is made from unleavened dough and boiled before being cooked. Other pasta varieties, such as shells and fingerers, are commonly used in soups.
Italian meals often revolve around the pasta dish, which is typically any type of pasta covered in a tomato or other based sauce. There are myriad varieties of pasta, but one popular variety is elbow pasta. This small noodle is cylindrical and shaped like a crescent or elbow. Because elbow pasta is small and cooks quickly, it’s a good choice as a side dish or as a complement to soups, casseroles, and some easy-to-prepare American dishes.
Like many other varieties of pasta, elbow pasta is made with an unleavened dough made from wheat, flowers and water. Sometimes egg is added to the mixture, but pastas made with egg don’t keep as long as pastas without. Elbow pasta is a common choice for the dish known as macaroni and cheese, which is, as the name suggests, simply cooked elbow pasta covered in cheese or cheese flavoring. Instant macaroni and cheese is a popular low-cost, easy-to-prepare dish that is often made with an artificial cheese powder that coats the pasta when combined with water, milk, and/or butter.
Pasta is usually cooked by boiling. Pasta must be softened from its dry state to be edible, although raw pasta is safe when eaten without cooking. After the pasta is boiled, it can also be cooked. Elbow pasta is a common choice for casseroles, in which elbow pasta is first simmered, then added to a roasting pan with sauce, cheeses, and other ingredients. When the dish is cooked through, the cheese melts on top of the pasta and the rest of the dish is heated, creating a casserole that is both easy to make and quite tasty when prepared correctly. Ziti, penne, and other smaller noodles can also be used for casseroles. Other pastas that are commonly cooked are lasagna, ziti and conchiglie.
While elbow pasta can be used for soups, it’s more common to see other types of macaroni used in this application. Shells are a common choice, as are fingerers, which are small tubes just like elbows, except fingerers don’t have crooks. They are simply small tubes; when cooked into soup, they tend to thicken and spread out, but are still small enough to be comfortable for a spoon. Other choices for soups are pastine, which are even smaller than ditalini, and sometimes even smaller versions of penne.
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