This week's Scordo Pasta Challenge was special to me, you see the Scordo family canned tomatoes this past weekend and the penne lisce we consumed included the first tomato sauce made from 2010 tomatoes!
"Penne Lisce", or smooth penne, is essentially the standard penne you can find in any supermarket and on most menus at restaurants. The second, standard, penne variant is "Penne rigate" or penne with ridges. While the penne is common, it's trully a superstar pasta that can be tossed with a fresh tomato sauce, pesto, or baked in the oven with cheese (click here to learn how to cook like an Italian). Penne is a well designed pasta because it holds the condiment or sauce very well and it's jagged edge can also scoop up sauce! I like the taste sensation penne lisce provides because of it's smooth surface.
I've now consumed 18 pasta shapes for the Scordo Pasta Challenge and suddenly the 150+ shapes do not seem like a daunting task!
Italian
