Pasta is a generic term for foods made from unleavened dough of wheat or buckwheat flour and water. There are hundreds of different shapes of pasta with at least locally recognized names. Examples include spaghetti, maccheroni (tubes or cylinders), fusilli (swirls), lasagne, gnocchi, farfalle (bows), ravioli, tortellini, penne, tagliatelle, linguine ect.

Pasta is divided into three different categories: pasta lunga (long pasta like spaghetti), pasta corta (short pasta like penne) and pastina (literally "little pasta" is a variety of pasta consisting of tiny pieces of pasta, ideal for soups and minestrone)

Pasta is categorized in two basic styles: dried and fresh. Dried pasta made without eggs can be stored for long under ideal conditions, while fresh pasta will keep for a few days under refrigeration.

Under Italian law, dry pasta (pasta secca) can only be made from durum wheat flour or durum wheat semolina. Italian pasta is traditionally cooked al dente (Italian: "firm to the bite", meaning not too soft). I would suggest don’t get pasta made from other types of flour (such as wheat flour) as this will be a softer product that cannot be cooked al dente the same way.

A sign of good quality pasta is holding its shape and texture through cooking and not clouding the water (this is a sign the pasta contains too much starch and is being released into the boiling water, not containing high enough protein).

Bronze die pasta: Traditionally all pasta was made with bronze dies (stamps) where the dough is pressed through to make various shapes. As the dough is pressed through the roughness of the holes, the ‘all bronze dies’ create a porous surface that will help cook the pasta evenly giving you a good ‘al dente’ as well as absorbing more sauce. The simplest way to explain the difference is looking at the surface of it. If you look up close it has a rough speckled pale color different from the more common pasta which has a brighter yellow shiny surface.

Cooking tip: Fill a large saucepan with hot water. Bring to boil and add a pinch of salt and put your pasta. Bend to fit as it heats and then stir every so often to make sure pasta cooks evenly and doesn't stick together.

Italian pasta brands in Cork: Barilla, De Cecco, Agnesi, Pasta di Gragnano- Tesco the finest (The name itself implies a location and style of production, much the same way that a DOC wine appellation does.

To be called pasta di Gragnano, the pasta must be produced in a legally defined area in and around the Bay of Naples. The dough is forced through rough bronze forms (trafilata al bronzo) and dried at low temperatures in the mountain air.