Italian cuisine more varieties that are filled with other ingredients like ravioli and tortellini. The word pasta is also used to refer to dishes in which pasta products are a primary ingredient. It is usually served with sauce. There are hundreds of different shapes of pasta with at least locally recognized names. Examples include spaghetti (thin rods), rigatoni (tubes or cylinders), fusilli (swirls), and lasagne (sheets). Dumplings, like gnocchi (made with potatoes or pumpkin) and noodles like spätzle, are sometimes considered pasta. They are both traditional in parts of Italy. Pasta is categorized in two basic styles: dried and fresh. Dried pasta
Pasta amount of thermal energy, they become embedded within the protein matrix and align along the direction of the shear caused by the extrusion process. Starch gelatinization and protein coagulation are the major changes that take place when pasta is cooked in boiling water. Protein and starch competing for water within the pasta cause a constant change in structure as the pasta cooks. In 2011, the three largest producers of dried pasta were Italy (3.2 million tonnes), the United States (3 million tonnes), and Brazil (1.3 million tonnes). By 2016, Italy was still the largest producer of pasta in the world