Pasta - Types that Tingles Our Tongue

​Pasta is a very easy to cook healthy Mediterranean diet. It is of four broad types: tubular, ribbon, strand and stuffed. Let's take a deeper look at them and what makes the differences. 

Tubular are long and elongated pasta that take the form of tubes through which the sauce can penetrate through. They are straw-shaped pasta. 

1. Macaroni is the famous tube shaped pasta that is curved like a shell.  The sauce oozes through the holes. 

2. Penne is another famous and trending pasta in tubes. These are straight and elongated short tubes. 

3. Cannelloni are bigger tubes that are stuffed and topped with sauce and baked to serve. 

4. Rigatoni is a tubular pasta but much bigger than penne and comes in a wide range of size. 

5. Bucatini is another tubular pasta that are as long as spaghetti but with a hole in the center like a straw.

6. Manicotti are much rigid bigger tubes like cannelloni that can be stuffed and served with a pasta sauce.

(C)vectorstock

Ribbon pasta are long stacks of slender pasta flat bread-like sticks. They do not have holes but they come in a wide variety. 

1. Lasagne are getting very common these days. These pasta sheets are flat and are layered with topping and sauce alternating with each other in layers, baked and served. 

2. Fettucine are long flat strands of pasta. They are much like spaghetti but are flatter. 

3. Tagliatelle are balls of flat strands of pasta. 

4. Linguine is 4 mm wide and elliptical type of pasta. 

5. They are broad and flat pasta noodles. 

6. Mafaldine are twisted flat pasta sticks. 

The idea of making ribbon pasta varieties is that the flat strands size and shape blends with the sauce and the toppings in a different manner thereby has a difference in the taste.

Strands are pasta that are like ribbon pasta but are much thinner and longer. These pasta are faster to cook many times merely sauting and mixing with the sauce itself is good enough. 

1. Spaghetti is a very famous italian pasta that are slender and long sticks.  They are little chewy strands. 

2. Vermicelli are very thin and small strands of pasta that are packed as a mesh or broken pieces.   

Stuffed pasta are some of the most delicacy. It is very tasty as the pasta stuffing also gets cooked. The stuffing is packed within the dough, dried and stored. 

1. Ravioli are thin dough filling pasta stuffed with spinach, ricotta and spices. 

2. Tortelloni are shaped differently and the stuffing dough is a little thicker with spinach and ricotta cheese as stuffing. 

3. Agnolotti pasta are stuffed dough with roasted meat and vegetables. 

Just get wired to creativity and make your own pasta bowl. Its the easiest and tastiest dish to be made. 

Pasta - Sauces that Flavours Nostrils to Buds

What I love about eating pasta are the wide variety of fragrances that the sauces can bring to nostrils and taste buds. I like to enjoy my pasta in a wide variety of sauces. Though my favourite is the white sauce, I enjoy eating the red or the tomato sauce as well. Here is a quick look at some of the common sauces and how they are made. 

Alfredo sauce: Add the cream and butter to simmer and when the sauce thickens top it with Parmesan cheese. The creamy and smooth white sauce that sticks to your lips and mouth for some time with a tangy salty taste is inevitably a feast to enjoy. Enhance the flavour with a wide range of herbs like vanila, rosemary, cilantro, coriander and mint. 

Arrabiatta sauce: This is a sauce that is made of tangy tomato and hot chilli that takes your sensation to the next level. It has the option to create variations by adding a zest of extra tangy lemon or a wide range of aromatic herbs from rosemary to mint and coriander. 

Marinara: This is a typical Italian tomato sauce simmered with loads of garlic and a wide variety of herbs to taste. 

Pesto: Pesto is green sauce made with basil and loads of garlic and cheese. This is rarely found in the market but is a delicacy that can be readily made at home. The difficulty in making this sauce is that the basil will start leaving water in the sauce which will reduce the creamy texture and has to be always prepared fresh. 

My White Sauce: Maybe I should name this sauce Cheez. I make my white sauce with milk simmered with creamy cheese and this simmered sauce is flavoured with spices like dry red chilli or pepper and herbs. 

What's the powder fragrance do to your complexion?

What inspired me to blog is the photo of mine that had different colour fragrances showed different complexions. 

The most common powder that changes your complexion to rosy sun-kissed cheeks is Rose powder. The rose powder made with the mild fragrance of rose imparts a rosy color to your cheeks. It adds a bashful you to your face. 

(C) thegirlfrompanama

Usually, all of us think that's the only powder that we think adds colour to our face. Many think the face powder makes our face turn white. But that's not true, the complexion changes according to the fragrance. 

Sandal powder turns your face to a tint of yellow complexion that glows your inner beauty. If the colour of your complexion is fair, then use sandal powder and flaunt the beauty of your radiant skin. 

If your complexion is brown to dark then use powder with fragrances like Jasmine and mild white flowers that the powder will just leave you the long-lasting freshness and fragrance. Lavender fragrance is another powder that suits and radiates the freshness and beauty for any complexion. 

This is my experience with different powders and varying fragrances. 

Beauty tip: I choose my powder fragrance according to the seasons: sandalwood for summer, dreamflower to lavender for winter and rainy seasons.