Ingredients
For recipe see Italy Revisited/Recipes/"Italian Pasta Dishes"
Directions
Notes
Prior to World War II store-bought pasta was highly prized and often seen as superior to home-made one as it was rather expensive and guests enjoyed the uniform shape of the tubular pastas. Twice-baked pasta, along with lasagna and cannelloni were the most common festive dish served at weddings, baptisms, confirmations and every other important life event. When Italians moved to North America in the 1950s twice-baked pastas were also served on festive occasions. Nowadays they are often prepared, though many cooks don't like doing the bite-sized meatballs as it requires a great deal of work to do them so they simply stir-fry the minced meat and add it to the sauce, American-style. In my humble opinion the bite-sized meatballs are very important to this dish -- they make this dish special and rather endearing. So if one does not want to do them, one should settle for spaghetti and meatballs. The pasta was prepared by my mother and sister; I took the photo. |
