One of my all-time favorite conversational topics is food, and under the food category, nothing makes me happier than waxing poetic about pasta preferences. My sister and cousins (and really anyone who’s worth knowing) feel similarly passionate about this topic. Inspired by my cousin Phoebe’s seemingly incomprehnsible love of tortellini [in a world that includes butter-drenched angel hair or papardelle sprinkled with parmesan, who in their right mind would mention tortellini as a pasta of note?!], I did some dirty work, and embarked upon a seriously difficult taste-testing mission. After all, there are real issues out there in the world, and someone’s gotta tackle ’em.
Outside of restaurant-awesomeness, my experience with tortellini has been too dense, too chewy, and too bland to make me even consider tortellini as a viable contender in the “best pasta shape” game. Perhaps i was buying the wrong brand, perhaps my heart wasn’t in it. The world may never know.
For my tortellini taste test, I went with a random, artsy looking brand that Brett had purchased (please note the super scientific way in which I conducted this experiment). I married the tortellini with a little Rao’s, a little butter, and a little parm, and for regularity’s sake only, some arugula.
I’ve gotta say, Phoebe might be onto something.
It was the first tortellini in quite some time that made me really appreciate the pasta-ness of the situation. Like, the folds of pasta were legit, and the mouthfeel was akin to tightly coiled fettucine (YES). The cheese stuffing was flavorful and creamy (not grainy and dry and blah).
All in all, it was an experience I look forward to repeating in the near future.
Buon pomeriggio.
