Zip-Ziti-Doo-Dah
Jul. 12th, 2011 09:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gemfyreI have a few pasta cookbooks, pasta being one of the most versatile, best value, staple foods you can get (along with rice). My favourite of these books has 3 recipes involving a pasta shaped called Ziti, which looked interesting. A while ago I actually found some Ziti in a shop so I grabbed it. It wasn't until last night I actually cooked a dish with it, and I discovered that Ziti isn't as easy as it looks.
If Bucattini is "fat Spaghetti" then Ziti is downright obese. It's long tubes of pasta, about 1cm wide. Figuring it was just like a fatter version of Spaghetti I decided I could cook it like I cook Spaghetti/Bucattini, so I boiled up some water in a medium sized pot, I would have used the large one, but it was already dirty (used to make another batch of chai concentrate). Never mind, I often use the smaller pan and it works fine.
Ziti is NOT Spaghetti. With Spaghetti I place the pasta in the boiling water and about half of it still stick out, but it softens quickly and I can use tongs to gently bend the pasta strands and immerse them fully in the water. This doesn't happen with Ziti. The bottom half of the pasta was cooking away in the boiling water but the tops were still in the cold air. The pasta was just too thick to bend quickly. I decided maybe I could just turn the pieces around so the other half got a bit of a boil, but some bits slipped through the tongs and I lost track of which ones I had turned and which I hadn't. Then, being straw shaped, the boiling water started to shoot out the tops of the pasta onto the rest of the stove! Wow.
I quickly grabbed the stockpot and placed the Ziti and boiling water into it and covered the pasta with more water. Of course this meant that the whole lot had to reboil. The Ziti was actually cooked just before the water managed to come back to the boil.
Then I had to drain it. Usual story, place colander in sink, drain pan into colander.
Because it's long tubes, the Ziti holds water like a garden hose. I shook and tossed it and water just kept coming out. In the end I think there was still quite a bit of water inside the tubes, but I had no practical way of removing it. So I just continued to finish the pasta dish (it involved roasted cherry tomatoes and bocconcini and evoo and balsamic vinegar).
It looked pretty in the bowl, even though serving it was a little messy. Then I realised I didn't really know how to eat this stuff! You can't wind it around your fork like Spaghetti. Eventually I kind of just dangled the strands over the fork and bit off a mouthful and it was all a bit messy. But tasty.
I'm not really sure that Ziti is worth the trouble. Sure, it looks interesting, but unless there is some technique for cooking/handling/eating it that I don't know, it's just too awkward.
If Bucattini is "fat Spaghetti" then Ziti is downright obese. It's long tubes of pasta, about 1cm wide. Figuring it was just like a fatter version of Spaghetti I decided I could cook it like I cook Spaghetti/Bucattini, so I boiled up some water in a medium sized pot, I would have used the large one, but it was already dirty (used to make another batch of chai concentrate). Never mind, I often use the smaller pan and it works fine.
Ziti is NOT Spaghetti. With Spaghetti I place the pasta in the boiling water and about half of it still stick out, but it softens quickly and I can use tongs to gently bend the pasta strands and immerse them fully in the water. This doesn't happen with Ziti. The bottom half of the pasta was cooking away in the boiling water but the tops were still in the cold air. The pasta was just too thick to bend quickly. I decided maybe I could just turn the pieces around so the other half got a bit of a boil, but some bits slipped through the tongs and I lost track of which ones I had turned and which I hadn't. Then, being straw shaped, the boiling water started to shoot out the tops of the pasta onto the rest of the stove! Wow.
I quickly grabbed the stockpot and placed the Ziti and boiling water into it and covered the pasta with more water. Of course this meant that the whole lot had to reboil. The Ziti was actually cooked just before the water managed to come back to the boil.
Then I had to drain it. Usual story, place colander in sink, drain pan into colander.
Because it's long tubes, the Ziti holds water like a garden hose. I shook and tossed it and water just kept coming out. In the end I think there was still quite a bit of water inside the tubes, but I had no practical way of removing it. So I just continued to finish the pasta dish (it involved roasted cherry tomatoes and bocconcini and evoo and balsamic vinegar).
It looked pretty in the bowl, even though serving it was a little messy. Then I realised I didn't really know how to eat this stuff! You can't wind it around your fork like Spaghetti. Eventually I kind of just dangled the strands over the fork and bit off a mouthful and it was all a bit messy. But tasty.
I'm not really sure that Ziti is worth the trouble. Sure, it looks interesting, but unless there is some technique for cooking/handling/eating it that I don't know, it's just too awkward.
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no subject
Date: 2011-07-12 02:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-12 12:26 pm (UTC)I've always seen it baked.
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Date: 2011-07-12 12:39 pm (UTC)The sauce can then goosh into the ziti tubes, and the water that may be left will bake out in the casserole.
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Date: 2011-07-12 12:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-12 01:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-12 02:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-07-14 03:50 am (UTC)